(Bloomberg) -- European rapeseed prices will probably remain high in 2012 due to a “somewhat tight” global oilseed market, said Philippe Tillous-Borde, chief executive officer at Sofiproteol SA, France’s largest oilseed crusher.

Rapeseed prices on NYSE Liffe in Paris may average 430 euros to 440 euros ($555 to 568) a metric ton this year, Tillous-Borde said in an interview yesterday in Dijon in eastern France. He said prices will remain in flux, with “a lot of volatility from week to week, and that is difficult to manage.”

Sofiproteol, based in Paris, processes about 4.5 million tons of rapeseed and sunflower seed annually into edible oils, biodiesel and animal feed. Rapeseed futures traded in the French capital averaged about 448 euros a ton in 2011, compared with 351 euros a ton the previous year.

“I expect prices to be supported,” Tillous-Borde said. “The markets have already taken into account the harvest in South America. We need to have good planting for the U.S. soybean harvest, but prices are good so there should be.”

Soybeans for March delivery rose 0.9 percent to $11.945 a bushel today on the Chicago Board of Trade. Prices have dropped 15 percent in the past year and are up from $9.635 a bushel two years ago.

Rapeseed for delivery in May gained 0.5 percent to 434.25 euros in Paris, down 16 percent from a year ago for the most- active contract and up from 279.75 euros a ton on the same date in 2010.

Following dry conditions in Brazil and Argentina that threatened production there, “it’s raining a lot there now, for me the soybean crop has been saved,” Tillous-Borde said. “It still has to be harvested of course.”

Rapeseed sowing in Europe for this year’s harvest probably declined “somewhat,” according to the Sofiproteol CEO.

“Sowing of rapeseed has been good in France and Germany, not very good in Romania and Ukraine,” he said. Farmers may switch from rapeseed to sunflowers on unplanted acres, he said.

While Sofiproteol can use both rapeseed and sunflower seed to make oil and feed, crop yields are generally higher for rapeseed than for sunflowers, according to Tillous-Borde.

The company, through its Diester Industrie unit, accounts for about a third of European biodiesel production, according to the CEO. French biodiesel sales are forecast to rise this year, and the company has partly covered its expected business by buying soybean-oil call options in Chicago and selling diesel put options, Tillous-Borde said.

Import competition meant the biodiesel business was unprofitable in Italy and Spain last year, the CEO said, without providing financial details.

“We’re still disrupted and bothered by imports of biodiesel from soybeans from Argentina and palm-oil biodiesel from Indonesia,” Tillous-Borde said.

The company has a “difficult year” in edible oils last year as some French supermarkets refused to pass on higher oilseed prices until June, making for a “complicated” first half of 2011, according to the executive.