Ukraine no longer dictates the price of sunflower oil anywhere except Europe — opinion

Ukraine is getting closer to losing its status as the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil every year. This was stated by Sergey Repetsky, a partner at Sunstone Brokers, writes Latifundist.com.

According to him, Russia, despite the decline in yields, can harvest 17.5–18 million tons of sunflower seeds this season and export about 4.5 million tons of sunflower oil – an indicator that is already equal to or even exceeds Ukraine’s.

In the aggressor country, yields are decreasing more slowly than in Ukraine. Meanwhile, demand for sunseed in the Black Sea region is generally falling, which creates new risks for Ukrainian processing. Ukraine has large oil mills that need a stable supply of seeds.

“We do not dictate prices anywhere else except Europe. We are no longer number one in China, Turkey, or India. We need to “take off the crown” a little, because many still think that the entire global sunflower oil market depends on Ukrainian oil. The Argentine harvest has grown by 43% in the last 2 years, the Russian one by 20%, while Ukraine has lost 35% of its sunflower harvest,” says Repetsky.

He adds that the biggest problem is the decline in demand, not just production volumes. This is hitting the processing industry, which needs large volumes of high-quality seeds for stable operation.

Tags: sunflower oil, prices