Soybean is Italy’s oilseed with the biggest area

In Italy, the sown areas of oilseeds vary from 400 up to 470 K mt. Almost all of the crop is crushed domestically. In addition, Italy imports significant quantities not only of oilseeds but also of vegetable oils to load crushing capacities and to meet domestic demand for oil.

The crop distribution from 2015 to 2023 has not changed significantly. Soybean remains the main oilseed crop, followed by sunflower, rapeseed area is insignificant.

In 2023, oilseeds area was increase of 6% compared to 2015. The oilseeds area has been at record levels for the last two seasons.

All oilseeds – soybeans, sunflowers and rapeseed – increased in area. Nearly 70% of the area was planted to soybeans.

Italy is the largest producer of soybeans in the EU. Italy’s share is almost one third of the EU’s total soybean area.

The EU’s demand for soybeans for the production of high-protein animal feed far exceeds the EU’s harvest. The biggest challenges to expanding soybean acreage are drought and heat, especially in southern European countries, including Italy. Here, production is increasingly dependent on irrigation.