15 October 2023

The export of sunflower oil decreased vs. previous months, but remains active as for current period of a year.

According to customs statistics, Ukrainian sunflower oil exports in September 2023 amounted to 357,000 tons, which is the lowest value since July 2022, but, in our opinion, is quite a sizable volume for the first month of the season, and also taking into account the significant decrease of sunflower seeds stocks in Ukraine at the end of the last season.

As a reminder due to the high stocks of sunflower at the beginning of the previous marketing year, in general, in the 2022/23 season (from September 2022 to the end of August 2023), Ukraine exported more than 5.6 million tons of sunflower oil. For comparison, in the 2021/22 season, oil exports amounted to only 4.5 million tons.

The monthly dynamics of the export of Ukrainian sunflower oil during the last two seasons is shown in the following graph:

In 2023, according to official data, the total sown area of sunflower seeds in Ukraine is 5.1 million hectares, relatively flat y-o-y. As of October 5, 7.3 million tons of sunflower seeds were harvested in the country from 3.2 million hectares (63% of the planned area) with an average yield of 2.3 t/ha (2.18 t/ha in 2022).