United Oilseeds, the UK’s only specialised oilseed rape marketing company, has announced its financial results for the year ended 30 June 2008.

Chris Baldwin, Managing Director

During the year, the United Oilseeds group made a pre-tax profit of £1.26 million. The group’s net worth grew by 28% to a value of £4.03 million compared with a figure of £3.15 million for the previous year. During the same period, turnover increased by 94% to £40.60 million as a result of increased volumes of crops being traded and increased seed sales, as well as a significant increase in the value of commodities.

Membership of United Oilseeds has also continued to grow, with the number of farmers trading with United Oilseeds increasing by 58% from 1,364 members in 2006, to 2,151 in 2008.

Chris Baldwin, Managing Director said, “I am pleased to report another set of healthy figures for the group. United Oilseeds continues to grow, with the non pool tonnage traded each year increasing by 192% over the last four years, and 47% over the past 12 months alone. We have also paid out a total profit share of some £606,000 to trading members over the last two years, thereby helping our members to secure a better return from their crops.”

Mr Baldwin continued, stating, “We have seen a pre-tax profit rise of 38% as a result of an increase in the volume of ex-farm crops purchased and increased seed sales. The market has also been favourable for large parts of the year and United Oilseeds has been well positioned to take full advantage of the firm market on behalf of its farmer members.

“For the year ending 2009, the whole of the farming industry is likely to face a challenging time as we see significant increases in input costs and a reduction in commodity values due to a number of global economic factors.

“Volatility in the market place therefore looks likely to remain in the short term. One way for farmers to reduce their exposure to this volatility is to take advantage of United Oilseeds’ pool pricing mechanism which has once again consistently returned a much better price than both the average market value and that of our competitors. United Oilseeds also offers a range of additional member benefits including its ‘Produce of Hectarage’ contract which is once again available to members for the 2009 harvest,” Mr Baldwin concluded.

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