Oilseed rape pool results announced

Jonathan Lane, Gleadell Agriculture’s oilseed rape trader, today announced the results of the Gleadell October-December Harvest 2008 Oilseed Rape Pool, which returned a price of £283.03.

"However you look at it, 2008 was an exceptional trading year. The markets experienced unprecedented volatility and marketing grain and oilseeds has been difficult to say the least," Mr Lane commented. "In early July soybean futures peaked, driven by concerns about inadequate supplies of US soybeans and fuel was poured on this fire by fund managers and non-agriculture speculative investors piling money into the commodity markets and indices. The strength in the soy market spilled over into other oilseed, meal and vegetable oil markets and rapeseed prices benefited from the boom that had gripped the World’s commodity markets.

"However, as we all know now - and despite Gordon Brown’s pontificating that the world had moved away from a boom and bust culture - the boom in the oilseed sector was followed by bust, and it was a bust that started in July and saw the largest percentage fall ever registered.

"It has been very difficult to make predictions in these volatile times, but we aimed to sell our pool tonnage into any rally that we saw in this declining market and believe our pool result of £283.03/mt represents an excellent return to our Pool members, given the difficult nature of this marketing campaign," he added.