Oilseeds
A crusher is not buying seed. It is buying oil and meal.
Soybeans, sunflower seed and rapeseed for crush and for confectionery. Priced on what comes out rather than on what goes in — and, from 30 December 2026, subject on soya to a deforestation regime that turns the farm plot into a contract term.
The desk
The economics run backwards from two products you never see in the contract.
An oilseed has no use of its own. It is bought to be crushed into oil and meal, and the crusher's margin is the value of those two outputs less the cost of the seed and of processing. That margin — the crush spread — is what actually determines what a cargo is worth, and it is the frame a serious buyer works in.
So the parameters that matter are the ones that move the outputs. Oil content sets how much of the more valuable product comes out per tonne. Free fatty acids determine how much of that oil is lost in refining, because every point of FFA is oil that leaves as soapstock. Moisture and admixture are simply weight you paid for and cannot crush. Protein in a soybean sets the meal's value, and meal is often more than half the revenue from the seed.
Which is why a soybean quoted only on moisture and admixture has been described, not specified. We write oil, protein, FFA and impurities into every oilseed contract with a basis and a scale, so that a cargo that runs a point light on oil is a calculable adjustment rather than an argument.
The seeds
Three seeds, three different reasons to buy them.
They are not substitutes. Each has a distinct oil, a distinct meal and a distinct regulatory position.
| Seed | Typical outputs | What decides the trade |
|---|---|---|
| Soybeans | Roughly a fifth oil, the rest high-protein meal. | The meal is the main event — soybean meal is the world's benchmark protein feed, and protein content drives the value more than oil does. Soya is in scope for EUDR, and GMO status is a market-access question rather than a quality one. |
| Sunflower seed | Around 40 % or more oil, with a lower-protein meal. | An oil crop first. Oil content is the price. High-oleic varieties are a separate product commercially, with a different oxidative stability and a different buyer — and they should never be contracted as ordinary sunflower. |
| Rapeseed / canola | Around 40 % oil, with a well-regarded meal. | Erucic acid and glucosinolate content define whether it is double-low food-grade rapeseed or an industrial grade. Also the principal European biodiesel feedstock, which ties its price to energy policy as much as to food demand. |
| Confectionery sunflower | Not crushed at all. | Sold on seed size, kernel percentage, colour and stripe uniformity. A different specification, a different price basis and a different buyer from crush-grade seed of the same crop. |
Specification
Eight lines, and each has a scale attached.
Oilseed contracts are usually written with allowances and rebates rather than as pass or fail. The scale is as important as the guarantee, and it is what turns a marginal cargo into arithmetic.
| Parameter | What it governs |
|---|---|
| Oil content | On a stated moisture basis. The main value driver on sunflower and rapeseed, contracted with a base figure and a per-point allowance either way. |
| Protein | On soybeans, the meal value. Also basis-dependent, and the parameter a feed-focused buyer will trade oil away for. |
| Free fatty acids | Oil already degraded by moisture, heat or damage before crushing. It is refining loss, so it comes straight off the crusher's margin — and it rises in badly stored or wet seed, which makes it a condition indicator as well as a quality one. |
| Moisture | Weight without value, and the driver of heating and spoilage in the stow. Contracted with a base and a rebate scale. |
| Admixture and foreign matter | Everything that is not the seed. It dilutes the oil yield and, on some cargoes, carries the moisture that starts the trouble. |
| Damaged and heat-damaged seed | Directly linked to FFA and to oil colour. Heat damage in particular says the parcel has already been through a storage failure somewhere upstream. |
| Aflatoxins and other mycotoxins | Legal limits in the destination, not preferences. For groundnuts and oilseeds the EU sets aflatoxin B1 in the range 2.0–8.0 µg/kg and total aflatoxins 4.0–15.0 µg/kg depending on the processing the product will undergo before consumption — so the intended use has to be in the contract. |
| Erucic acid and glucosinolates | On rapeseed only, and they define the grade. Double-low food-grade and industrial rapeseed are different products and should never share a specification. |
Deforestation
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 — and the date has moved twice.
The EU Deforestation Regulation is the most significant change to agricultural trade into Europe in a generation, and its timetable has been amended enough that most of what is written about it is out of date. Here is where it actually stands.
The dates
30 December 2026.
Following the revision agreed at the end of 2025, the regulation applies to all operators from 30 December 2026, with micro and small enterprises given a further six months to 30 June 2027. The Commission is required to present a simplification review by 30 April 2026, so the detail may yet move again — but the application date is now settled in law rather than proposed.
- What is in scope
- Cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood, together with products derived from them. Of the products on our agricultural book that means soya here, coffee, cocoa and palm oil under edible oils.
- What it requires
- That the commodity is deforestation-free with reference to a 31 December 2020 cut-off, that it was produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production, and that a due diligence statement covers it. Which means geolocation of the plots of land where it was grown — not a country of origin, not a region, the plots.
- Why that is a contract term and not a certificate
- Plot-level geolocation has to come from the producer and travel intact through every intermediary. It cannot be reconstructed at the port and it cannot be bought as an attestation. A supply chain that cannot produce it in 2026 will not be able to produce it in 2027 either.
- What we are doing now
- Building the geolocation and legality file on soya origins ahead of the date rather than on it, because a chain assembled in advance can be tested and a chain assembled on the deadline cannot. Where an origin cannot supply plot data we say so at enquiry stage.
GMO
A market-access question wearing a quality question's clothes.
Genetically modified soy and rapeseed are the majority of world production in several origins and are entirely lawful in most destinations. But whether a particular event is approved in a particular market is a legal fact with hard consequences, and it varies.
- Approval is by event and by market
- An approved event in one jurisdiction may be unapproved in another, and an unapproved event arriving in a zero-tolerance market is a rejected cargo rather than a discounted one. The destination's approval list, not the origin's, is what governs.
- Identity-preserved non-GM is a separate product
- It carries a premium, and that premium buys a segregated chain from the farm through storage, transport and loading, with testing at defined points. Non-GM as an unsupported statement on a contract is not identity preservation.
- Thresholds and testing
- Where a tolerance applies, the threshold, the sampling protocol, the laboratory and the method all belong in the contract. A PCR result means nothing without the sampling plan behind it.
- What we do
- State GMO status per contract with the testing regime named, and confirm the destination's approvals before shipment rather than after. On identity-preserved parcels we contract for the segregation itself, not just for the test result.
Contract terms
FOSFA, and the determination clause again.
Oilseeds and vegetable oils trade on the contract forms of the Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations rather than on GAFTA forms. Same shape, different detail — and using the wrong family in a contract is a real error rather than a cosmetic one.
- Form and edition, named
- Different forms for CIF and FOB, and by origin. "As per FOSFA" without a number settles nothing.
- Determination
- Quality and condition determined by a named independent superintendent at the contractual point, to the association's sampling rules, with sealed samples retained and the certificate binding. As on grains, this clause is worth more than the specification above it.
- Analysis and umpire
- Where the parties' analyses differ, the form provides for referral. Agreeing the analyst list in advance costs nothing and agreeing it during a dispute costs a great deal.
- Arbitration and time limits
- FOSFA arbitration in London, with claim and appointment deadlines that are short and strictly applied. A good claim filed late is a lost claim.
- Allowances and rebates
- The scales for oil, moisture and admixture. Written in advance they are arithmetic; written afterwards they are a negotiation you are conducting from a weak position.
Scope
Where our obligation ends.
- What we supply
- Soybeans, sunflower seed and rapeseed for crush, and confectionery sunflower, in bulk vessel and containerised lots on FOSFA terms with independent determination at the contractual point.
- What we do not do
- We do not farm, store or crush, we do not operate elevators or crush plants, and we hold no equity in production. We do not offer hedging or advise on the crush spread.
- EUDR
- We build and supply the geolocation and legality file. The due diligence statement is the obligation of the EU operator placing the goods on the market, and we will not represent in a contract that we discharge it.
- GMO
- Status stated per contract and destination approvals confirmed before shipment. On identity-preserved non-GM we contract for the segregated chain, and we will not sell a test result as though it were segregation.
- Mycotoxins
- Tested against the destination's limits for the intended use before shipment, with the intended use written into the contract because the limits depend on it.
How to specify
Seven lines and we can price it.
The scales in line three are what most enquiries leave out, and they are where the money moves.
Seed, grade and use
Soybeans, sunflower, rapeseed; crush or confectionery; and for rapeseed whether double-low food grade or industrial.
Determination basis
Final at loading, at discharge, or split — and the superintendent. Named before the specification.
Guarantees and scales
Oil, protein, FFA, moisture and admixture, each with a base figure, the basis, and the allowance or rebate per point.
Origin and EUDR position
Acceptable origins, and whether you need plot-level geolocation now or from the application date.
GMO requirement
Approved-event GM, or identity-preserved non-GM with the threshold, the sampling protocol and the laboratory.
Contaminant ceilings
Aflatoxins and other mycotoxins to the destination's limits for your intended use, plus pesticide residues.
Quantity, vessel and form
Tonnes with tolerance, vessel size, load and discharge rates, FOB or CIF, shipment window, and the FOSFA form and edition.
Inspection
Sampling a cargo whose value is invisible.
Independent determination by a superintendent appointed for the cargo — SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek — instructed jointly, to the association's sampling rules. Oil content and FFA cannot be judged by eye, so on oilseeds the sample is the entire basis of the settlement.
- Sampling
- Increment sampling during loading to the FOSFA rules, with increment number and mass recorded, and sealed retained samples held by the superintendent for the claim period. A parcel sampled from the surface of a stockpile has not been sampled.
- Analysis
- Oil content, protein, free fatty acids, moisture, admixture, damaged and heat-damaged seed, all on a stated basis with the method named. On rapeseed, erucic acid and glucosinolates; on high-oleic sunflower, the oleic percentage.
- Contaminants
- Aflatoxins and the other mycotoxins the destination regulates, plus pesticide residues, with the sampling plan documented — mycotoxin distribution is very uneven and a small sample is a coin toss dressed as a result.
- Condition
- Holds inspected, cleaned and certified before loading with the previous cargo declared; ventilation regime agreed and recorded; cargo photographed at load and at discharge; infestation checked, and fumigation documented against the destination's residue limits.
- Chain of custody
- For EUDR-scope soya, the geolocation and legality file with each transfer documented. For identity-preserved non-GM, the segregation record at every point, not merely the endpoint test.
- Documentation per cargo
- Certificate of quality with all guarantees on their stated bases, certificate of condition, weight certificate, mycotoxin and residue certificates, phytosanitary certificate, certificate of origin, GMO statement with test results, EUDR data pack where applicable, bill of lading and the superintendent's report with photographs.
Straight answer
What we will tell you before you ask.
- That the crusher buys oil and meal, not seed
- Oil content, protein and FFA decide what a cargo is actually worth. A soybean quoted on moisture and admixture alone has been described rather than specified.
- That FFA is a condition indicator as well as a quality one
- It rises in wet or badly stored seed and it is refining loss straight off the margin. A high FFA on arrival is telling you something about the whole chain.
- That EUDR needs plot coordinates, not a certificate
- It applies to soya from 30 December 2026, with micro and small enterprises to 30 June 2027. Geolocation has to come from the producer and survive every intermediary — it cannot be reconstructed at the port.
- That nobody can carry your EUDR obligation for you
- The due diligence statement is the EU operator's. We supply the data that makes one possible; anyone offering more than that is offering something the regulation does not allow.
- That non-GM without segregation is just a sentence
- Identity preservation is a segregated chain with testing at defined points. If the premium is not buying that, it is not buying anything.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.