Sunseed prices in Ukraine break records at the end of the 2024/25 season

Decreasing inventories and active demand for sunflower oil at the end of the season pushed sunflower prices in Ukraine to their highest levels since the beginning of the 2024/25 season.

Due to the shortage of sunseed, many factories in Ukraine switched to processing soybeans and stopped at the end of the season to prepare for the new season or switched to processing rapeseed, which led to a shortage of sunflower oil supply on the domestic market for producers of refined and bottled oil.

Demand prices for crude sunflower oil on the domestic market of Ukraine have increased to UAH 58,000-60,000/t on FCA terms, which is equivalent to $1,165-1,200/t, while maximum export prices at ports do not exceed $1,150-1,160/t.

Sunflower oil exports from Ukraine in July grew rapidly to 464 thousand tons worth $537.9 million, and in total, over the 11 months of the 2024/25 season, Ukraine exported about 5 million tons of sunflower oil, which is equivalent to 10 million tons of sunflower (out of 11.5 million tons grown in the 2024/25 MY).

This caused a sharp increase in the demand price for sunseed to 27,000-28,000 UAH/t (oil content 50%), and in some cases to 29,000 UAH/t with fast delivery to the factory. At the same time, farmers increased their offer prices to 29,000-30,000 UAH/t on ex-farm terms.

An additional factor supporting prices was forecasts of a reduced sunflower harvest in southeastern Ukraine due to a prolonged drought.

Farmers need to take advantage of the increased demand and sell their new sunseed crop at the highest possible prices, as the global supply of both sunflower seeds and soybeans will increase as the harvest season approaches in September and October. In addition, the supply of cheap soybeans from the US and rapeseed oil from the EU will also increase during this period.