At the end of July, spot commodity cost around EUR 300 per tonne ex mill. Deliveries from August onwards were at EUR 250 per tonne, up EUR 50 per tonne year-on-year. Asking prices have not declined since then, because the feedstock has become more expensive. Buyers were hoping for supply from the oil mills to exceed demand and for prices to fall. But it did not look like this was actually going to happen. Rapeseed meal was valued at the same price until the October delivery date, whereas premiums were asked for delivery from November onwards.

The fact that rapeseed meal was available again was reflected in ex-farm prices, which declined EUR 40 per tonne to EUR 318 per tonne compared to the previous month. In fact, in some regions – especially those close to processing locations – rapeseed meal was available at less than EUR 300 per tonne. However, this price did not exactly encourage buyers to conclude longer-term supply contracts, because it was still 30 per cent higher than a year earlier.

The price for soybean meal hardly changed, with asking prices only around 0.8 per cent lower than the previous month. This still translates to an almost 24 per cent rise year-on-year. GVO-free soybean meal was very expensive because it was very scarce. Even at the wholesale level, asking prices were up just over 60 per cent compared to a year earlier, although they most recently seemed to be on a weaker trend.