31st August, 2011
Last week saw Frontier Agriculture finish loading the MV Beaumaiden Sea with 2,735 metric tonnes of oilseed rape at the Port of Dundee, destined for Gdansk in Poland.
Allan Macaulay, is an oilseed rape trader for Frontier, whose role involves finding the best prices and homes for Scottish farmers' grain and oilseed rape. Allan explains: "This year has seen a high-yielding rape harvest, well up on average. This means that finding profitable markets for OSR has presented some challenges. However, we've accessed additional overseas consumers to ensure timely movement of crop from farm, whilst still achieving a good price. This frees up essential storage space for later harvested crops such as wheat, and that's good news for our farmer customers."
Increased demand for OSR from Scotland is being driven by lower than usual yields in Europe, particularly in Germany and mainly attributed to recent wet weather.
Frontier has access to a wide range of markets for farmers' grain and oilseed both in the UK and overseas, demonstrated by their extensive commitment to domestic crushing plants in Liverpool and Hull as well as overseas demand via ports such as Dundee. The company also has access to export facilities at many other ports including Peterhead and Berwick, as well as their own facilities at Hull, Boston and Southampton.
