Ukrainian sunflower oil price rises above world prices

The shortage of raw materials at the end of the 2024/25 marketing year raised sunflower oil prices in Ukraine to record levels.

Limited supply of seeds and the transition of many plants to processing soybeans and rapeseed caused an increase in domestic prices for crude sunflower oil to 58–60 thousand UAH/t ($1,160–1,200/t), which exceeds world quotes. This is reported by UkrAgroConsult.

For comparison, export prices are currently 1,135–1,145 $/t for August and about 1,100 $/t for September.

The activation of small processors raised purchase prices for sunflower (50% oil content) to 27.5–28 thousand UAH/t. The highest prices for August batches of oil are offered by buyers from India — $1,210–1,220/t, in the EU and China — about $1,150–1,220/t.

Despite the drought in the Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the production forecast in Ukraine remains at the level of 13.5–14 million tons. At the same time, Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania expect an increase in harvests, and in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan they predict a significant increase in production — up to 18–18.5 million tons and 2–2.3 million tons, respectively.

An increase in supply from Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation may increase competition for the Indian market, while in the EU, demand for Ukrainian oil is likely to decrease due to the increase in domestic production. According to Oil World, the world sunflower harvest in 2025/26 MY will increase by 4.2 million tons — to 59.3 million tons, which will be a historical maximum.

The day before, USM reported that the volume of grain transportation in containers by rail had decreased by 10% over the past six months.