Purchase prices for sunseed in Ukraine are falling in line with oil prices

After a sharp drop in sunflower prices last week, farmers stopped selling sunseed, which exacerbated the shortage of offers on the Ukrainian market. Demand prices for sunflower fell from UAH 14,500-15,000/t to UAH 13,500-13,800/t with delivery to the plant under the pressure of a drop in oil prices, and in the last 10 days by 6-10%, which led to a decrease in vegetable oil prices, in particular sunflower, by 4-5%.

During the week, quotations for soybean oil in Chicago and for palm oil in Malaysia fell by 3.5-4.5%, which increased the pressure on the sunflower oil market, as a result of which purchase prices in Ukraine decreased by another 10-20 $/t to 750 -760 $/t with delivery to the port.

Ukraine continues to increase its export of sunflower oil, and in November it increased by 32% compared to October to 538 thousand tons, which is 58 thousand tons higher than in November 2022, when 480 thousand tons of oil were shipped. But the total export of sunflower oil in the 2023/24 MR decreased compared to the same period last year by 10.8% from 1.44 to 1.3 million tons.

Export demand for Ukrainian sunseed remains low amid the EU import ban and is unlikely to increase in the near future, even with an agreement with Bulgaria to resume supplies using an import licensing mechanism, resulting in DAP demand prices – Bulgaria rose from $420-430/t to $440-450/t.

In general, in 2022/23, Ukraine exported almost 1.9 million tons of sunseed thanks to record transitional stocks and active purchases by EU countries.

In the current season, the EU reduced sunseed imports by 84% compared to the same period last year to 213,700 tons, of which 59% or 124,000 tons were supplied from Moldova and 23.4% or 50,000 tons from Ukraine, although in 2022/23, Ukraine delivered 1.165 million tons of sunflower to the EU.

It was sunseed exports that supported Ukrainian farmers at the end of last season, as exporters offered higher prices than processors in Ukraine. But now, against the backdrop of the ban on exports to the EU, processors are actively reducing purchase prices in order to increase processing margins, which have fallen to minimal levels.