Impact of problems in Argentina on the sunflower market

The Argentine sunflower processing sector is showing a slowdown, despite a forecast harvest of 4.8 mln tons, which is 1 mln tons more than last year. A key factor in this decline is the shutdown of the production capacity of the major player Vicentin SAIC.

This circumstance, according to analysts, creates the prerequisites for a decrease in the export competitiveness of American suppliers, even with a significant amount of raw materials. Statistics for the first quarter of this year (data from OilWorld Germany) confirm this trend: processing amounted to 858 thsd tons, which is 2.5% lower than the level of the same period last year. It is expected that the increase in sunflower oil production will occur only in the second half of the year as the new crop actively enters the processing plants.

This slowdown in Argentina leads to a decrease in global competition and, as a result, provides additional price support to exporters from the Black Sea region. In conditions of supply shortage and persistently high prices, there is a widening spread between sunflower, soybean, and palm oils, indicating the formation of a new price configuration on the global vegetable oil market.

Tags: sunflower oil, export, sunseed, Argentina, restrictions