Ukrainian farmers suspended sales of sunflowers after last year’s demand prices for sunflowers fell from 14500-15000 UAH/t to 13500-13800 UAH/t or 340-348 EUR/t with delivery to the plant. This was due to the decline in oil prices over the past 10 days by 6-10%, which led to a decrease in prices for vegetable oils, including sunflower, by 4-5%, UkrAgroConsult reports.
During the week, quotes for soybean oil in Chicago and palm oil in Malaysia fell by 3.5-4.5%, which increased pressure on the sunflower oil market, resulting in a further 10-20 USD/t to 750-760 USD/t or 696-705 EUR/t with delivery to the port, the report said.
Export demand for Ukrainian sunflowers remains low amid the ban on imports to the EU, and there is no chance that it will increase soon. Even after the agreement with Bulgaria on the resumption of supplies using the mechanism of import licensing, which resulted in the demand prices for DAP-Bulgaria increased from 420-430 USD/t to 440-450 USD/t or 408-417 EUR/t.
This season, the EU reduced the imports of sunflower seeds by 84% to 213.7 thousand tonnes compared to the same period last year, of which 59% or 124 thousand tonnes were supplied from Moldova and 23.4% or 50 thousand tonnes from Ukraine, although in 2022/23 MY Ukraine supplied 1.165 mln tonnes of sunflower seeds to the EU.
Sunflower exports supported Ukrainian farmers at the end of the last season, as exporters offered higher prices than processors in Ukraine. But now, amid the ban on exports to the EU, processors are actively reducing purchase prices to increase processing margins, which have fallen to minimal levels.