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Farming Today: 28/04/22 - Global vegetable oil shortages, Wildlife Trusts strategy and drought in Scotland

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28/04/22 - Global vegetable oil shortages, Wildlife Trusts strategy and drought in Scotland

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 28/04/22 - Global vegetable oil shortages, Wildlife Trusts strategy and drought in Scotland

A global shortage of vegetable oil is leading to soaring oilseed rape prices here.

Global vegetable oil supply is facing a perfect storm: not least the war in Ukraine which is disrupting exports of sunflower oil.

The majority of the UK's sunflower oil comes from Ukraine and disruption to exports because of the war has led to shortages - with some supermarkets limiting how much sunflower oil customers are allowed to buy. Meanwhile, pressure on the global vegetable-oil market has been increased further by Indonesia banning exports of its palm oil. This has lead to an increased demand for alternatives - like rapeseed oil - and the price of oilseed rape has shot up.

Nature needs to be put into “special measures” according to the Wildlife Trusts. They've launched their 2030 Strategy calling for a decade of concerted nature restoration to not just slow the decline of nature, but to actively reverse it. They say the action’s vital to stop some native species like water voles from becoming extinct and to address the climate crisis.

And although you may associate Scotland with too MUCH rather than too little water, in recent years some parts of the country have experienced exceptionally dry conditions. The county of Angus is one of the dry spots - we visit one potato grower to find out what that means. 

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Heather Simons

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