As olive oil prices soar, British-grown rapeseed oil is well-placed to emerge as an important alternative following a good harvest.
Rapeseed oil has already grown in popularity as an alternative to olive oil because it contains half the saturated fat, cooks better at higher temperatures and is grown in Britain.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have both picked up on the trend, launching premium own-label products this year.
A disastrous olive oil harvest in Spain could now play into the hands of the growing band of rapeseed oil players.
As The Grocer reported last week (8 September) forecasts of a 40% drop in Spanish olive oil output have caused extra virgin olive oil prices to shoot up by 30% since June.
Commodity prices 15 September 2012: cocoa
Cocoa butter prices have continued to rise ahead of beans, in response to European manufacturers cutting down on bean grinding. At £2,739/tonne, UK prices for cocoa butter are now more than £1,000/tonne higher than cocoa beans.
Analysts have warned cocoa butter supplies have started to tighten as a result of low production levels, making further price rises likely.
Higher crude oil and naptha prices have led to price increases on LDPE film and HDPE over the past month, with prices for both increasing by double-digit margins month-on-month.
Meanwhile, prices for Arabica coffee remain weak, falling a further 12.1% over the past month to £2,207/tonne - 43.4% below last year’s prices.
By contrast, the outlook for rapeseed oil is far more benign. Prices have edged up by about 5% to £805/tonne since June [Mintec], largely because of the impact of the US drought.
But even after the recent increases, prices are still down 5% year-on-year and the likelihood is that they will fall again if forecasts for good harvests in Canada and Australia are accurate. European harvests are also coming in better than expected.
“Despite the wet weather, the harvest was reasonably average and we were happy with the quality,” said Hillfarm Oils managing director Sam Fairs.
Rapeseed oil sales climbed 28% year-on-year to £7.6m last year [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 19 February 2012], so a more favourable price comparison with olive oil can only boost its appeal further.
Even before the latest commodity cost changes have filtered through to the shelf edge, rapeseed oil prices compare well. For example, Tesco retails its one-litre bottle of own-label organic rapeseed oil for £2.99 whereas its smaller own-label bottle of 500ml organic extra virgin olive oil is on sale for £2.48.
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