Articles By Anna Platonova

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.

The Ukrainian government has released the minimum export prices for a list of agricultural goods in an official document from the country’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food seen by Fastmarkets on Monday November 11.

Ukrainian exports of soybeans and processed sunflower products decreased during the week to November 6, while rapeseed exports increased, data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed on Thursday November 7.

October sunflower processing in Ukraine increased month on month and year on year, despite a poor sunflower harvest, high costs for the product and complaints from processors of a lack of raw materials and minimal processing margins, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday November 5.

Russia’s sunflower oil export duty has risen above zero for the first time in 18 months, while the sunflower meal export duty has reached its highest since April 2024, according to an update from the country’s Agriculture Ministry on Friday October 25.

Ukrainian exports of oilseeds and processed sunflower products fell in the week from October 16 to 23, official data from the ?ustoms Statistics Service showed on Thursday October 24.

Ukrainian sunseed crushers are planning to increase the processing of other oilseeds, given the shortage of sunflower and its higher prices, which threatens to leave the country’s oilseed processing capacity underutilized, market participants said at the conference Black Sea Oil Trade 2024 in Bucharest on Tuesday October 15.

The General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) announced the vegetable oil tender on Sunday October 13, after prioritising sunflower oil in the previous three tenders, ignoring soybean oil because of its high cost, and last buying it in an international tender in June, sources told Fastmarkets.

Ukrainian exports of soybeans, rapeseed and sunflower oil decreased in the week from October 3 to October 9, while exports of sunflower meal jumped significantly, official data from the Ukrainian Customs Service showed on Thursday October 10.

Sunflower processing in Ukraine in September this year, the first month of the 2024/25 season, was estimated to be almost at the level of September 2023, trade sources told Fastmarkets on Friday October 4.

Weekly rapeseed exports from Ukraine jumped by 95.5% from September 26 to October 2, with sunflower meal and soybeans also showing growth, while weekly sunflower oil exports fell, official data from the Ukrainian Customs Service showed on Thursday October 3.

Sunflower crusher prices in Ukraine have jumped 9% since the start of the 2024/25 season, as the harvest campaign progresses and sunflower crop estimates are constantly revised downward, which is intensifying competition, while rising sunflower oil prices are providing additional support to raw material prices.

Weekly progress in Ukraine's corn harvest in the week ending September 26 was 10 percentage points out of the 4 million hectares planned for harvest in the 2024/25 season, according to official data published by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy & Food on Friday, September 27.

Russia’s sunflower meal export duty has risen to another record high for the period since April this year, but sunflower oil export duty will remain at nil in October of the 2024/25 season, which started on September 1, according to an update from the country’s Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday September 25.

The winter grain sowing campaign in Ukraine advanced 11 percentage points to 18% in the week to Monday, September 23, with 944,500 hectares of the 5.18 million hectares planned for 2025/26 planted, according to the country's Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

EU oilseed crushing volumes continued to grow in August, reaching o 3.48 million tonnes, up by 224,000 tonnes, or 7%, compared with July's 3.25 million tonnes, according to data from EU vegetable oil and protein meal association Fediol on Friday September 20.

Ukrainian sunflower oil exports in the 2023/24 season exceeded the pre-war level and reached the second-highest record since the foundation of the oilseed processing industry in Ukraine, while the sunflower harvest was underestimated, according to the final report for the 2023/24 season by the Ukrainian industry association Ukroilprom during an online meeting on Thursday September 19.

Ukrainian exports of sunflower oil, sunflower meal and soybeans remained slow in the September 12-18 period, while rapeseed exports remained relatively strong, data from the State Customs Service showed on Thursday September 19.