UPDATE 2-Strikes costing French oilseed group Saipol half a million euros a day

Strikes over wages at French oilseed group Saipol are costing the company 500,000 euros ($570,100) a day at a time when it is struggling with difficult market conditions linked to Argentine biodiesel imports, parent group Avril said on Thursday.

The continuing protests at two production sites have led to a drop of 180,000 tonnes of rapeseed used since the end of January, said Avril spokesman Tom Doron, with brokers saying this is weighing on French prices of the oilseed. "This comes at an already difficult time," Doron said after indicating that Saipol suffered its fourth consecutive annual loss last year with a net loss of about 30 million euros.

European biodiesel producers have been struggling since the EU scrapped duties on Argentine and Indonesian biodiesel last year in response to a ruling by the World Trade Organization. An agreement reached last month between the EU and Argentina allowed eight Argentine biodiesel producers to export to the bloc without paying duties if they sell at a set minimum price.

Saipol's decline in rapeseed intake was split between 100,000 tonnes for crushing activities and 80,000 tonnes for biodiesel, Doron said. The company crushes 3.5 million tonnes of oilseed a year, mainly rapeseed, and produces 1.3 million tonnes of biodiesel and 1.8 million tonnes of meal used in feed.

The strikes started on Feb. 1 and have halted output at Grand-Couronne, which produces 417,000 tonnes of biodiesel a year, and at Montoir-de-Bretagne, which makes 270,000 tonnes of biodiesel, Doron said. There have also been short-lived protests at two other sites, he added. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide Editing by David Goodman)