EU farmers getting fed up with rapeseed as bugs chew crops

FILE PHOTO: The Mont Saint-Michel, 11th century abbey appears as a farmer plows front of a rapeseed field in Huisnes-sur-Mer, Normandy, France April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

LONDON: British farmer Charles Matts just harvested the worst crop of his life at one of the best times to sell it.

Rapeseed futures in Paris have jumped 9% from a low in early March. Yet Matts, like many growers across Europe, had little to sell after pests this summer chewed through half the rapeseed at his Northamptonshire farm. Even with the higher prices, farmers are debating whether to keep growing the difficult crop as the next planting period begins.