An apparatus for pelletizing renewable raw materials, such as stalk material, having a feeding device for feeding the materials to be pelletized and having at least one press drum pair that is settable into opposite rotational movements, wherein the feeding device has a drivable conveyor belt which conveys the material to be compressed into the region of a feed hopper between the press drum pair, and which wraps around one of the two press drums regionally over an angle of at least 20° in order to form a precompaction region, and wherein the precompaction region has a constant width with respect to its length, said width corresponding more or less to the width of the press drums.