Ukrainian farmers sending out raw sunflower seeds instead of their typical sunflower-seed oil export has helped stabilize the global market for cooking oil, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Ukraine exported 347,000 tons of sunflower-seed oil in January, down from the 621,000 tons in January 2022, before the war, according to data from SovEcon, an agricultural consulting firm. This drop in exports caused the prices of sunflower-seed oil and other cooking oils to surge.
To meet the demand, Ukrainian farmers have simplified the domestic process, instead sending uncrushed sunflower seeds to buyers who process the oil out of the country. The seed-crushing and processing infrastructure in Ukraine has been affected by the war, and dedicated sunflower-seed oil ports are still closed.
In January, the country exported 190,000 tons of seed, compared to just 4,000 tons in January 2022. This has helped to stabilize the market.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally rewritten the trade flows around the country’s iconic sunflower market,” said Anna Platonova, an oilseed-price analyst at U.K. agency Fastmarkets. Full Story (Subscription Required)
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