2024-04-13 06:27:22
LCamelina oil has a mild asparagus taste. But it also has a strong smell of silver. In any case for those who would like to make a new use of it. Rather than pouring a few drops onto the back of a cooked turbot, why not pour liters of it into a turbojet? This is the bet of the Avril group, which would like to open the floodgates of this culture, to power aircraft engines. An agrofuel for air transport in search of greening. The camelina, cousin of rapeseed, wants to take flight.
We still need to get the green light from Brussels. The Avril group, the armed wing of the oilseeds sector in France, whose president is none other than Arnaud Rousseau, also at the head of the agricultural union FNSEA, is in charge. The challenge: to slide this oilseed plant as an intermediate crop in place of the plant covers currently installed between two productions to protect the soil. The Avril group affirms that, under its pressure, its camelina oil file is progressing well, within the Brussels machinery.
“Frustrating to produce to make biofuel”
Like rapeseed, whose flowery carpet currently spreads over nearly 1.34 million hectares in the French countryside, camelina plays the yellow flower card. But it offers the advantage of having a short cycle, three to four months compared to ten to eleven for rapeseed. The cameline puts the turbo on. However, it is a delicate culture. Pauline Charlin-Hallouin experienced this when she moved to Danzé (Loir-et-Cher) in 2018 with her husband to produce edible oils.
“The first year, the insects delighted in the camelina. As we did not want to solve the problem with insecticides, the following year we planted the camelina with the lentil, which acts as a repellent., she says. A winning combo for the farmer, who extols the virtues of her first cold pressed camelina oil, already placed, moreover, on a starred table. In his eyes it appears “frustrating to produce camelina to make biofuel”. It is true that a bottle of camelina oil is sold for 15 euros, three times more expensive than rapeseed oil.
Two opposing forces
The price of rapeseed, for its part, suffered a severe slide, after the surge in 2022, caused by the outbreak of war in Ukraine. At the height of speculation, oilseeds shattered their historic record, at 840 euros per tonne. “For five to six months, a tonne of rapeseed has been moving in a price tunnel of between 410 and 450 euros,” specifies Arthur Portier, consultant at Argus Media, who adds: “The market is fundamentally blocked. »
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