In the period from July 1 to August 13 this year, the EU countries imported over 1.6 million tonnes of major oilseeds, which is 40% lower than the level in the same period last season.
According to the monitoring data of the European Commission specialists, during the reporting period 1.33 million tonnes of soybeans (-16% for the year), almost 250 thousand tonnes of rapeseed (-63%), as well as 30.3 thousand tonnes of sunflower seeds (-93%) were imported to the EU territory.
Brazil, USA, Australia, Uruguay, Canada and Ukraine became the main suppliers of the mentioned products to Europe for more than a month. Smaller shipments of oilseeds also came from Serbia, Moldova, Argentina and China.
Meanwhile, EU countries also reduced vegetable oil imports (from 1 July to 13 August 2023) – by 5%. For example, imports of palm oil fell to 368.1 thousand tonnes (-25% for the year), and rapeseed oil – to 46.5 thousand tonnes (-2%). However, shipments of soybean and sunflower oil increased to 102.1 thousand tonnes (+134%) and 232.54 thousand tonnes (+12%) respectively.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Guatemala, Guatemala, Ukraine, Belarus and Argentina supplied the most oil to the EU in the reporting period.