Ukraine boosts sunflower oil exports by 16% in Jan-July

Exports of sunflower oil from Ukraine in January-July 2019 grew by 16% year-over-year (y-o-y), to 3.8 million tonnes.

"Some 3.8 million tonnes of sunflower oil and 238,000 tonnes of soybean oil were shipped abroad over the seven months of this year, which was 16% and 81% up from the same period last year, respectively," the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry's press service said on August 15.

Although the harvesting of sunflower and soybeans has not yet begun this year, the forecasts for their yield are rather optimistic. Thus, a decrease in areas under the crops (sunflower by 4.4% and soybeans by 8%) was balanced by favorable weather conditions, that is rains in August across most of Ukraine, the reports said.

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Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Olena Kovalova says the prospects for a good harvest of sunflower are a good prerequisite for the production of oilseeds and maintaining export potential.

"Today, our country ranked first in the world in terms of sunflower oil exports, providing significant foreign exchange earnings. In January-July alone, the exports stood at US$2.6 billion. At the same time, large volumes [of cargo] are a big burden on railway and port logistics. Therefore, an important task is to prevent logistical problems in the exports of processed products," the press service quoted Kovalova as saying.

So, one of the important issues today is improving the interaction of Ukrainian state-owned railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) with manufacturers and exporters, as well as systematic and coordinated work based on the interests of all parties.

As UNIAN reported earlier, sunflower oil output in Ukraine in 2018 decreased by 7.7% to 4.8 million tonnes.