European rapeseed oil gains ground as biodiesel feedstock

In France, the European rapeseed oil market is one of the largest vegetable oil markets in the world, playing a crucial role in food, feed and bioenergy. Vegetable oil-based derivatives volumes have been rising, in part due to the growing importance of bioenergy markets such as biomass-based diesel and ethanol used in transportation, as well as biogas used for heating and electricity generation.

In this sphere, the biggest futures and options market is for soybean oil, which is traded globally as one of the leading benchmarks for the vegetable oil sector. However, European rapeseed oil has been gaining ground amid rising demand for road transport biodiesel, with demand particularly high  during the colder months due to its superior performance compared to other feedstocks. 

The growing embrace of bioenergy has seen demand rise across the vegetable oil sector and has been beneficial to products like Soybean Oil, Palm Oil and Used Cooking Oil futures, a trend that looks set to continue – vegetable oil demand for sustainable aviation fuels remains relatively strong according to data provider Argus Media, and total vegetable oil-based futures volume in the 12 months to March 2025 reached 4.254 million contracts per month, up 19% from 3.58 million contracts per month in the prior 12-month period.