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Ukraine winter wheat sowing outpaces last year
Ukraine winter wheat sowing outpaces last year
Kyiv, 4 November (Argus) — Ukraine's winter wheat planting pace has caught up with and slightly exceeded last year, primarily as favourable weather has allowed farmers to speed up planting, particularly in the Odesa region. Farmers planted 445,400 hectares (ha) of winter wheat in the week to 3 November, up from 414,500ha the previous week, according to the economy ministry. This brings the winter wheat area planted for the 2026-27 season (July-June) to 4.3mn ha, or 90.2pc of a projected 4.77mn ha. This figure is 7,300ha higher than the area planted by 4 November 2024. Farmers in Odesa region continued to speed up sowing and led the advance in winter wheat areas, with 165,000ha planted in the reporting week. A favourable weather forecast for this week may allow farmers in some regions to maintain planting rates and meet earlier expectations of total planted areas. By 3 November, farmers had also planted 478,700ha of winter barley — 80.8pc of the projected 592,300ha. This was down from the 543,600ha planted by 4 November last year. Similarly to winter wheat, farmers in Odesa region significantly increased their planting pace, sowing 51,800ha in the reporting week. Ukraine's winter rapeseed planted area increased by 15,000ha in the week to 3 November, bringing the total for 2026-27 to 1.06mn ha — or 94.4pc of the projected 1.12mn ha. By Alexey Yeromin Planted vs projected winter wheat areas, 3 November '000ha Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
French wheat planting slows, but ahead of last year
French wheat planting slows, but ahead of last year
London, 31 October (Argus) — French soft wheat planting slowed in the week ending 26 October, but stayed well ahead of last year's pace, according to national agricultural and sea products agency FranceAgriMer. French farmers advanced the wheat planting campaign by 11 percentage points (pp) in the reporting week, compared with 30pp in the previous week. This brought total planted areas to 68pc of projected total, well ahead of the 41pc planted a year ago. And wheat in 39pc of total areas had emerged as of 26 October, more than a week earlier than last year, when only 17pc of areas had emerged by the same date. As for barley , 80pc of projected areas had been planted as of 26 October, compared with 62pc this time a year ago. Wheat in 58pc of total areas had begun emerging, representing a weekly progress of 28pp and 27pp ahead of last year. And France's corn harvest slowed in the reporting week. Farmers harvested corn from a total of 82pc of projected areas, representing a weekly progress of 7pp, but more than double the 38pc of areas harvested this time a year ago. By Anna Harouni French wheat planting progress % French wheat areas at % French winter barley planting progress % French corn harvest progress % Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Industry pushes for Australia-specific canola CI rating
Industry pushes for Australia-specific canola CI rating
Sydney, 31 October (Argus) — Australia's canola industry is pushing for a country-specific carbon intensity rating to avoid being penalised under the global Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia), delegates heard at the Australia Oilseeds Forum. Australian canola is grouped under a global category in the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification's (ISCC) Carbon Footprint Certification (CFC), a voluntary scheme that measures greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from feedstocks like canola oil. The certification helps producers of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel demonstrate compliance with Corsia and Europe's Renewable Energy Directive (RED). Under ISCC's default lifecycle assessment (LCA) for Corsia, SAF produced from canola oil carries a base LCA value of 47.4g CO2 equivalent (CO2e)/MJ, plus a penalty for indirect land-use change (ILUC) of 24.1g CO2e/MJ for EU-sourced oil and 26g CO2e/MJ for other regions, including Australia. The ILUC penalty considers emissions from land-use changes such as deforestation from increased crop production. SAF made from rapeseed or canola oil is all eligible to be used to meet targets under the Corsia scheme. Corsia requires that SAF achieves a minimum of 10pc GHG reduction over its lifecycle compared with a baseline 89g CO2e/MJ for conventional jet fuel. Using default values, SAF from EU-sourced rapeseed oil achieves 19.7pc reduction, and SAF from non-EU canola oil achieves 17.5pc. But SAF that achieves higher GHG savings may be able to fetch a premium in the market for allowing users to reduce their overall emissions more quickly. Reducing Australian canola's ILUC penalty to lower its overall carbon intensity score could help make SAF from Australian canola oil more competitive in the global market. ILUC penalty "expensive" for Australian growers A presenter from GrainCorp at the Australia Oilseeds Forum on 21 October said the current ILUC penalty is "expensive" for Australian growers who have been farming on the same land since canola was first grown commercially in Australia in the 1970s. Australia is more frugal with its fertilizer use than other canola-growing regions, they added. Australia does not have a specific ILUC value because the ISCC prioritises regions with large biofuel trade flows, such as the EU, US, Brazil, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Removing or reducing the ILUC penalty for Australian canola could increase demand, boost prices and encourage further decarbonisation, advocates said. Australia has some of the lowest emissions in the world because it is more likely to be rain-fed rather than irrigated, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said. The country's dry climate also reduces GHG released from the soil from fertilizer use compared with wetter regions. Australian canola has a low enough carbon footprint that, even after shipping and refining, it can still be delivered to EU customers within the target emissions savings of 50-60pc, CSIRO said. Canola alternatives Australian canola seed has an average carbon footprint of about 0.468t of CO2e, according to the CSIRO. The carbon footprint for EU rapeseed is 0.73t CO2e, ISCC data show, while the environmental footprint of Canadian canola seed can range from 0.365-0.488t CO2e depending on where it is grown, data from the Canola Council of Canada show. Carbon footprint calculations are before crushing and do not include emissions from possible ILUC. The EU's ReFuelEU directive — which currently legislates the only operational SAF blending mandate at 2pc in 2025 and drives the bulk of SAF demand globally — does not allow SAF made from crop-based feedstocks, including canola oil. Australian biofuel companies are exploring alternative feedstocks that are considered advanced under the ReFuelEU, allowing the SAF produced to be double-counted towards annual targets and making them potentially lucrative. Oil major BP is trialling carinata, a non-food oilseed similar to canola, which has a low carbon intensity score of 21.7g CO2e/MJ and may receive a negative ILUC rating due to its non-food status and role in improving the soil as a cover crop. Other forum speakers, including Australian bioenergy developer Jet Zero, are looking into pongamia , a tree crop not yet approved under ISCC but valued for its low-carbon, non-food profile and ability to sequester carbon. Several companies have identified pongamia as a promising crop that may be suitable for planting on severely degraded land, another advanced feedstock category under the ReFuelEU. By Grace Dudley Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
CVR to pivot biofuel unit back to crude: Update
CVR to pivot biofuel unit back to crude: Update
Updates with details from earnings call, reactions New York, 30 October (Argus) — US independent refiner CVR Energy will soon stop producing renewable diesel after President Donald Trump's administration sharply reduced the company's obligation to blend biofuels. The company will convert a 5,200 b/d renewable diesel unit in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, back to processing crude at the next scheduled catalyst change in December, CVR said on 29 October. It started producing biofuels at the site in 2022 , spurred by a federal biofuel blend mandate that CVR majority owner and former Trump adviser Carl Icahn has long criticized. But the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in August granted various requests from small oil refiners for hardship exemptions from that program, bucking a policy under former president Joe Biden of denying these petitions en masse. Exemptions for CVR's crude processing unit in Wynnewood mean $488mn in reduced liability from the biofuel program, the company said. CVR has also sued the Trump administration for only granting it partial exemptions for four years of mandates, hoping for a bigger windfall. Coupled with recently poor renewable diesel production margins, the substantially easier requirements for blending biofuels leave CVR with far less incentive to continue making higher-cost renewable diesel. The company had previously flirted with sustainable aviation fuel production at two refineries, too. "We just didn't see much of a chance really for anything to change in that space that was going to make it a good deal", chief executive David Lamp told analysts on 30 October. CVR reported a $51mn loss from its renewables unit during the third quarter after turning a modest profit during the same period last year. Renewable diesel producers have struggled this year, hurt by high feedstock costs and uncertainty about future tax credit rules and updates to the biofuel blend program. CVR also ran into some unique challenges, including primarily processing soybean oil despite also owning a feedstock pretreatment unit that the company will soon shut down. Fuels from soybean oil earn lower subsidies under a new federal biofuel tax credit than fuels from wastes like used cooking oil and animal fats. Transitioning the refinery back to crude will be "a pretty easy conversion", Lamp said. The facility could also switch back to renewable diesel if policies shift. Notably, the company expects to have to spend $100mn on credits to meet outstanding biofuel mandates before April — but even that was an insufficient incentive to continue making biofuels themselves. Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, EPA requires oil refiners and importers to blend different types of biofuels annually or buy credits from those that do. Reallocation fight could heat up CVR's plan is likely to inflame the farm and biofuel lobbies, which have argued that unchecked small refinery exemptions discourage biofuel production. Soybean farmers in particular have eyed stronger biofuel quotas as a way to at least partly offset the demand hit from Trump's trade wars cutting off export markets. The Trump administration has tried to mitigate these concerns, including by floating a plan last month to make other oil companies blend more biofuels themselves to offset exemptions. A comment period on that proposal closes on 31 October. "Small refinery exemptions undeniably destroy demand for renewable fuel", said Paul Winters, director of public affairs at the biomass-based diesel group Clean Fuels Alliance America. The group wants EPA to finalize new biofuel quotas "as quickly as possible" and require other oil companies to compensate for 100pc of the mandated biofuel volumes lost to exemptions, Winters said. A bipartisan coalition of 49 mostly farm-state members of the US House and Senate wrote to EPA today with the same message, arguing that anything less than "full restoration" of exempted volumes would hurt farmers. Refineries without small-enough facilities to win exemptions hotly oppose any effort to make them blend more biofuels than their competitors, however. And they point to other Trump policies — including tariffs on common renewable diesel inputs and a plan to halve biofuel credits for foreign feedstocks — that they say run counter to the administration's goal of encouraging more biofuel production. The US is making refiners choose between "losing more money running renewable diesel plants uneconomically" or shutting those units and hoping they can pass steeper compliance costs onto drivers, said a lobbyist at another refiner. "It's not a great choice but one EPA is forcing refiners to make". The US is already late setting new biofuel mandates for 2026 and 2027, and the ongoing partial government shutdown has raised fears of these delays stretching into next year. By Cole Martin Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.