Sunflower prices in Ukraine are rising against the backdrop of a low harvest, long rains and rising rapeseed prices

Last week, rainfall continued in Ukraine, which delayed the harvesting of sunflowers. According to forecasts, the rains will continue for another 5-7 days, which will increase crop losses due to rot, especially in the western regions, where excessive rainfall began as early as August.

As of September 15, 924,000 tons of sunflower were threshed from 478,000 hectares or 10% of the area in Ukraine with a yield of 1.93 t/ha, while last year on this date 2.38 million tons of sunflower were harvested from 1.12 million hectares with a yield of 2.12 t/ha.

Compared to last year, the sunflower harvest will decrease from 17.5 to 9-10 million tons, which forces processors to intensify purchases in order to ensure stability of work during the season.

After a slight drop, sunflower purchase prices rose last week to UAH 15,500-16,500/t or $425-450/t (compared to UAH 18,000-18,500/t or $670-685/t last year), as the dollar rose by 25 %, and processors do not include VAT reimbursement in the price.

Demand prices for Ukrainian sunflower oil remain at $1,050/t FOB – Black Sea ports, although they reached $1,300/t FOB last year, while prices in Romanian and Russian ports are $1,200/t FOB.

November palm oil futures on Bursa Malaysia rose 3.6% last week to 3,724 ringgit/t, or $828/t, after falling earlier, while December soybean oil futures in Chicago rose 1.9% up to $1,454/t.

According to the Vegetable Oil Producers Association of India (SEA), against the backdrop of lower prices for vegetable oils, in August, compared to July, India doubled its import of palm oil to 995,000 tons, but decreased soybean imports from 519,600 to 244,700 tons. and sunflower – from 155.3 to 135.3 thousand tons. In September, a similar trend will continue, because last week the country’s authorities lowered the basic import prices for certain oils, from which the amounts of taxes to be paid by importers are calculated. Thus, the price of crude palm oil was reduced from $1,192 to $996/t, for refined – from $1,266 to $1,019/t, for soybean oil – from $1,500 to $1,362/t, and for palm olein – from $1,281 to $1,035/t. Such a step will further reduce the demand for much more expensive and hard-to-find Ukrainian sunflower oil.

Last week, southern and central Brazil experienced rains favorable to soybean crops. If the rainy season begins, as usual, in late September to early October, soybean oil prices will start to fall under supply pressure, which will limit the rise in sunflower oil prices.

Tags: Ukraine, sunflower, prices, rapeseed