Articles By Anna Platonova

Ukrainian weekly sunflower oil exports fell in the week ending Wednesday January 15, while soybean, rapeseed and sunflower meal export orders increased, official data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday January 16.

Ukrainian oilseed crushers are halting their processing capacities due to low margins, compounded by high raw material costs and low selling prices for finished products.

Ukrainian exports of sunflower oil and sunflower meal increased in the week ending Thursday January 9, while exports of soybeans and rapeseed decreased, data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday.

Ukraine's sunflower crush fell by at least 12% month on month in December to its lowest level in the past three months, with low farmer sales, high sunflower prices and falling oil prices leading to reduced sunflower oil production and exports.

Russia is raising its export duty on sunflower oil by 74.72% in January — reaching its highest since October 2022, when the duty was first applied — and and increasing its export duty on meal by 26.00%, according to an update from Russia's Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday December 25.

Ukrainian exports of sunflower oil, sunflower meal and rapeseed increased in the week of December 19-25, while soybean exports decreased, official data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday December 26.

India, Spain and Italy ranked as the top three buyers of Ukrainian sunflower oil between September-December of the current 2024/25 season, accounting for 43.5% of the total export volume. The new rank displaced Turkey, which prefers to purchase cheaper Russian products, and Poland. It also reduced transit supplies through Romanian ports, favoring exports through deep-water ports in Ukraine.

Black Sea sunflower oil prices have fallen by at least 7% over the past month and continue to decline, weighed down by the increased availability of soybean oil relative to other vegetable oils, weak demand from key buyers amid ample short-term coverage and competitive prices from Russian sellers due to a higher-than-expected sunflower harvest in Russia, as well as the deferred EU Deforestation Regulation policy, which kept the palm oil and soy oil supply unhindered.

Ukrainian weekly exports of sunflower oil increased in the period from December 5 to December 11, while exports of sunflower meal, soybeans and rapeseed fell, official data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday December 12.

Market sources estimate the November sunflower crush in Ukraine at the same level as the previous month, with some seeing a significant increase in processing compared with October despite the negative margin. Soybean processing is estimated ambiguously, and rapeseed has fallen, according to sources.

Ukrainian weekly exports of soybeans, rapeseed and processed sunflower products increased from November 28 to December 4, as shown in data published the Ministry of Agrarian Policy on Thursday, December 5.

Sunflower seed prices at Ukrainian сrushing plants have fallen by an average of 5% over the past two weeks, after hitting a three-year high in mid-November, sources told Fastmarkets on Friday November 29.

A buy tender launched by Mustaqbal Misr, which had presented itself as a new entity of the Egyptian government, has gone unfilled according to trade sources, with some saying that they had not taken the tender seriously amid doubts over the new company and its documentation.

Ukrainian weekly sunflower oil and sunflower meal exports increased during the week to November 27, while soybean and rapeseed exports declined, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy data released on Thursday November 28.

The Turkish government is to further reduce import duties on sunflower seeds from the start of 2025 to bolster support local farmers, according to an announcement in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Turkey.

EU oilseed crushing volumes rose by an average of 11% month on month in October, but remain below the record high of 3.5 million tonnes set in March, according to data released by the EU vegetable oil and protein meal association, FEDIOL, on Friday, November 22.

Ukrainian exports of sunflower meal and oilseeds, including rapeseed and soybeans, increased week on week on Wednesday November 20, according to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy released on Thursday November 21. However, exports of sunflower meal decreased during this period.

Market sources suggested that the export duty on sunflower oil from Russia may increase by 200% in December compared with November, and by another 50% in January compared with December, amid a steady increase in prices for vegetable oils, which supports sunflower oil prices.

The progress of winter grain sowing in Ukraine increased by 2 percentage points in the week ended Monday November 18, reaching 98% complete with 5.06 million hectares sown out of the planned 5.18 million ha for the 2025/26 season, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.

Ukraine’s weekly exports of sunflower oil and rapeseed fell in the week ending Wednesday November 13, while exports of sunflower meal and soybeans increased, data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday.