Sunflowers and soybeans in Ukraine are falling in price against the background of the new harvest and limited exports

Intense shelling of Ukraine by missiles and drones slows down the work of export terminals, due to uncertainty about the further work of grain corridors, traders reduce purchases at ports, and the acceleration of harvesting increases the supply of sunflower and soybeans on the domestic market, which increases pressure on prices.

After the end of the rains, farmers accelerated harvesting, and as of October 14, 4.5 million tons of sunflowers with a yield of 2.05 tons/ha and 1 million tons of soybeans with a yield of 2.58 tons were threshed from 2.2 million hectares or 46% of the area. /ha from 389 thousand ha or 26% of the area.

Last week, the purchase prices for sunflower fell to UAH 14,500-15,500/t or $400-425/t with delivery to the plant. At the same time, the demand prices in the southern regions are lower than in the west, which indicates the reorientation of exports from the ports to the western borders.

Processors raised prices slightly amid delays in soybean and sunflower harvests to boost supplies, but are now lowering them again, although further declines limit active export demand. Demand prices for domestic sunflower with delivery to Moldova are $500/t, Romania – $550/t, Hungary and Bulgaria – $580/t.

Purchase prices for soybeans with GMO last week also decreased by 500-700 UAH/t to 13,000-14,000 UAH/t with delivery to the factory, while demand prices for soybeans without GMO remained at the level of 15,000-16,000 UAH/t with delivery to the factory . Continuation of the grain corridor will restore export demand for meal and oil in the ports, and activate the purchase of soybeans and sunflowers by processors.

November soybean futures on the Chicago Stock Exchange fell 5.7% during the month to $506/t on the back of good harvest rates in the US and favorable weather for sowing in Brazil.

In the USA, as of October 16, soybeans were harvested on 63% of the area, which is 11% higher than the 5-year average. Exports of soybeans from the United States doubled in a week to 1.88 million tons, and in total since September 1 reached 4.67 million tons, although last year on this date it was 6 million tons.

According to the NOPA association, soybean processing in the US in September reached a record 4.4 million tons for this month, which is 2.4% lower than in August, but 5.1% higher than in September 2021.