27 varieties of winter only. What is the real value of rapeseed and why is it so interesting to everyone

Grain harvest is in full swing . In the vacated fields, farmers have already begun to sow winter rapeseed, which the President recently called a superculture. Why is this title well-deserved, and why is interest in it growing even in China? We asked the experts.

- We expect to get more rapeseed harvest in all regions than last year. By the morning of August 11, 890 thousand tons of oilseeds had already been threshed. Farmers have to harvest 13,000 winter rape and about 45,000 hectares of spring rapeseed. This means that we can count on another 75-100 thousand tons. In total - about 1 million tons of rapeseed oilseeds in bunker weight, - Nikolay Leshik, HEAD of the main department of crop production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, calculates the potential harvest.

Today, rapeseed is not only the country's food security, but also the basis of Belarus' leading EXPORT positions in the world market for butter, SMP and cheeses.

- This crop, as well as soybeans, beans and grains are fed to cattle. At the exit we get MILK and MEAT , - explains the DIRECTOR of the largest in the country in terms of the number of cattle, JSC Parokhonskoye, Vladimir Khrolenko. - The rapeseed oil itself , although profitable for us, is a by-product. The main thing is rapeseed cake, the most important ingredient in cattle feed. In order to produce it ourselves, we opened our own rapeseed processing plant.

But even with this approach, the parohonians do not have enough cake - they buy an additional 3,000 tons more. There is very little oil in compound feed, so it is mainly made for sale. Moreover, they have been sold in recent years at a rather high price. Vladimir Fedorovich notes: now you can make good money on rapeseed oil.

The explosive growth of agrarians' interest in rapeseed is associated with the name of Professor, DOCTOR of Economic Sciences Jadwiga Pilyuk, head of the department of oilseeds of the Research and Production Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for agriculture. Her team ensured high productivity of varieties and hybrids of this crop. The Center has created 27 varieties of winter rapeseed.

- We offer farmers 50% seeds of varieties and another 50% - hybrids. The latter have a high potential - up to 70 centners per hectare, - explains Yadviga Edvardovna and recalculates the most popular zoned varieties: "viten", "buyan", "onyx", "Nikolai", "imperial", which over the past 10 years in Belarus and RUSSIA was sown 1 million hectares. And he clarifies that last year a little more rapeseed was sown in our country than this year. But this does not mean that the harvest will be less, because they try to sow flagship varieties on the fields. Despite the long drought this year, the country as a whole received a decent result in the cultivation of rapeseed. The farmers of the Brest region showed the highest yield: up to 30 centners per hectare.

The interest of buyers in rapeseed, or rather, oil from it, is also growing. Refined and deodorized, it is made from raw materials at the factories of the Belgospischeprom concern, packed in bottles and sold all over the country to stores. We see it already on the shelves.

- In addition, rapeseed oil is used for the manufacture of confectionery. It is part of margarine products, even used in the manufacture of soap, - says Andrei Meshkov, head of the department of agro-industrial integration and procurement of agricultural raw materials of Belgospischeprom.

Bottled refined oil is also exported abroad. Until recently, it was supplied mainly to the Baltic states and Norway, but recently enterprises have reoriented to other markets: Israel, Vietnam and CHINA .

- The Chinese market is still being mastered, - Andrey Vasilyevich notes. - We take into account the peculiarities of consumer demand in each country: for example, the Chinese love unrefined oil. But in Israel they prefer refined. The enterprises of the concern also sell butter through the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, mainly this is a technical grade T, which is suitable for compound feed.

Since the beginning of the year, rapeseed oil has been leaving the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange in small batches. The total volume is a little more than 19 thousand tons. Earned 14,230 euros on them. But lately prices have gone up a bit.

- This year, such goods were bought through the exchange by customers from Switzerland - 13.437 thousand tons, Estonia - 4.687 thousand tons, Lithuania - 590 tons, China - 325 tons, Poland - 134 tons, - said a representative of the public relations department of the Belarusian Universal commodity exchange" Oksana Belenkaya. - If in June the weighted average oil price was 727 EUR/t, then in July it was already 855 EUR/t (DAP border of the Republic of Belarus, prepayment). In August, such jumps in prices were not recorded. In general, the market is still very calm.

Analysts expect activation of trading in rapeseed oil on the stock exchange in a couple of weeks. Around the same time, buyers will become interested in rapeseed cake. Traditionally, it is requested on the stock exchange by Russia and China, which have herds of cattle. And if Belarus puts oil on the stock exchange , then cake will not. He and our farmers are worth their weight in gold.

Today, rapeseed is not only the country's food security, but also the basis of Belarus' leading export positions in the world market for butter, skimmed milk powder and cheeses.

| Tamara MARKINA, newspaper "7 days", photo by BelTA.

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