Ukraine February sunseed stocks fall to five-year low

Ukraine’s sunflower seed stocks began this month at five-year lows following the second-highest levels of crushing activity on record, despite a significant fall in year-on-year production.

Sunflower seed stocks stood at 4.3mn t at the start of this month, down by 32pc year on year, after nearly 6mn t of seeds were crushed over the first five months of the 2020-21 marketing year to 31 August, according to Ukraine’s state statistics service.

Despite a 2mn t drop in Ukraine’s 2020-21 sunflower seed production from the previous year’s record output of 15mn t, total processed sunflower seed volumes over September-January ran just 90,000t behind the 2019-20 pace.

And given that more than 2mn t of seeds are expected to be crushed over the February-March period, Ukrainian crushers could face tight supply availability starting from April, with about 3mn t of sunflower seeds due to be left available for crushing for the remainder of the season.

February stocks of soybeans fell by 18pc on the year to 1.04mn t, with combined export and crushed volumes over September-January standing at about 260,000t and 1.07mn t, respectively, down by 51pc and 50pc on the year following lower production.

As for grains, wheat stocks in Ukraine were reported at about 5.18mn t at the start of February, compared with 5.84mn t on 1 February 2020, while barley stocks fell below 1mn t to just 903,600t — the lowest level in more than 10 years.

Ukraine’s wheat and barley stocks were depleted by reduced 2020-21 production, as well as strong exports over the first seven months of the marketing year to 30 June, standing at 13mn t and 3.9mn t, respectively.

Ukraine’s corn stocks meanwhile began this month at a five-year low of 11.47mn t, down by about 13pc on the year. This fall resulted mainly from a decrease in the country’s production to 30.3mn t this marketing year, from 35.9mn t in 2019-20.

By Victoria Blazhko

Ukraine February sunseed stocks mn t

Ukraine sunseed crush in Sep-Jan mn t

AgrusMedia

Tags: Ukraine, sunseed