Excellent weather means the 25 European Union states are likely to harvest 14.08 million tonnes of rapeseed this year, against 11.05 million in 2003, Hamburg-based newsletter Oil World said on Tuesday.
This is up from its previous forecast of 13.21 million tonnes on July 20.
"This year's rapeseed crop will turn out much higher than anticipated," it said. "Surprisingly high yields have been obtained in several regions of Germany, France, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia."
It forecast Germany's crop at 4.93 million tonnes, up from 3.65 million last year, France's at 3.82 million tonnes from 3.34 million and Poland's at 1.32 million tonnes from 800,000 tonnes.
The main exception is the UK, where the crop is forecast to fall to 1.66 million tonnes from 1.77 million. Rapeseed prices had fallen because of good harvest prospects in the EU and Canada, it said. The market had stabilised recently but had probably yet to reach its floor.
"We estimate that EU exporters will need to attract demand from non-EU countries for 800,000 tonnes of rapeseed in the course of this season," it said.
"China is a potential destination for larger volumes of rapeseed/canola in coming months, partly as a replacement for the prospectively reduced soyoil imports from October onward."