Cargill plans to close UK rapeseed crush plant

LONDON (Reuters) - Cargill plans to close its rapeseed crush facility in Hull, eastern England, the global commodities trader said on Tuesday.

The mill, which Cargill has been operating since 1985, has the capacity to crush 750,000 tonnes of seed a day to produce 420,000 tonnes of rapeseed meal and 323,000 tonnes of crude rapeseed oil.

Traders said a sharp drop in production of rapeseed in Britain during the last few years had made it difficult for mills to obtain supplies from local sources and there has been an increasing reliance on imported supplies.

Cargill also has a rapeseed crush plant in Liverpool in north-west England while U.S.-based grain merchant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. operates a facility in Erith in south-east England.

Many farmers in Britain have stopped growing rapeseed due to problems with cabbage stem flea beetles following a ban on a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids which was imposed to protect bees.

Rapeseed area in Britain peaked at 756,000 hectares (1.87 million acres) in 2012 but totalled only 306,000 hectares for the 2021 harvest, according to government data.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by Sandra Maler)