Once seen as a bit of a Cinderella crop, it looks like oilseed rape is back in favour.

Fuelled by vegetable oil shortages brought on by the Ukraine war, industry specialist, United Oilseeds is estimating that the area of OSR jumped up again in the UK for this coming harvest year. For the 2022-23 season the estimated area is around 413,000 ha, up from 360,00 ha last year.

The 4500-member co-op stated that despite this significant rise in area, the UK would still be 438,000 tonnes short of self-sufficiency. The amount needed in the UK is 1.8m tonnes for 2023 which is down slightly from 1.9m thanks to the closure of the OSR processing plant in Hull

United Oilseeds managing director, Chris Baldwin, said: "With international supplies also hindered by availability and the war in the Ukraine, the outlook for OSR market prices remains bullish.

Read more: Oil seed rape needs cold weather in winter to maximise yield

“There is a pipeline of new varieties coming to market with improved traits and performance characteristics that will appeal to our growers. At the same time, UK demand for OSR remains high, which means British farmers can grow oilseed rape for a domestic market that will remain buoyant over the next few years.”

At the start of the month the break crop specialist co-operative announced an 18.19 % rise in pre-tax profits to £1.79m for the trading year to June 30, 2022, compared to £1.51m profit the previous year. The co-op's annual turnover was also up, rising to £174.5m, from £172m the previous year, whilst its net worth rose 13.17 % to £15.34m.

Total commodity tonnages traded by the business rose by 6.5%, amounting to 421,132 tonnes, compared with 395,557 tonnes in 2020/21.

Last year, the farmer-owned co-operative announced record profits, redistributing payments to its trading members of £440,000 – the highest it had ever made in its 56-year history. Any profit share payment to trading members for the 2021-2022 financial year will be announced in December.

According to the co-op, the variety Acacia accounted for 41% share of the UK conventional market; Aurelia a 30% of the hybrid market; Matrix a 63% share of the Clearfield market; whilst Crome now has a 48% of the club root resistant segment.