Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of trends in (a) acreage of oilseed rape, (b) imports of oilseed rape and (c) imports of oilseed rape substitutes in the last 10 years.

The Oilseed rape area increased from 269 thousand hectares in 1984, reaching a peak of 756 thousand hectares in 2012. Since then the area has decreased each year (apart from 2018 when an increase to 583 thousand hectares was seen). The provisional figure for 2020 shows a further decrease to 388 thousand hectares.

Total area planted for Oilseed rape in hectares for the last ten years

*2020 figure is current estimate based on Defra survey

Total Oilseed rape imports over the same period are shown below

Total other Oilseed (excl Rape but including Soya, Nut, Sunflower, Linseed) imports over the same period are shown below