Ukraine 2017-2018 sunoil exports seen down 4%

Ukraine has almost completed the 2017 sunseed harvest, threshing 11.9 million tonnes, compared with 13.3 million tonnes in 2016. The yield averaged 2.01 tonne per hectare this year against 2.27 tonne a year earlier, Reuters reports.

The consultancy, however, said that sunoil exports in the first two months of the current season featured a new record of 850,000 tonnes versus 710,000 tonnes a year ago.

Read alsoYield of crop production in Ukraine may almost halve in 2017 – experts UkrAgroConsult said 334,000 tonnes were exported to India against 206,000 tonnes in September-October 2016, and Ukrainian market share expanded by 10 percentage points to 39.4%.

India is a key market for Ukrainian sunoil, absorbing around a third of the country’s overall exports. The EU share is around 29%, while 10 percent of Ukrainian sunoil exports is headed to China.

Read alsoUkraine exports oilseeds worth $1.3 bln in nine months Earlier this month, India doubled sunoil import duties, but UkrAgroConsult said Ukrainian sunoil exporters could feel quite confident in the 2017-2018 season because India has forecast 2017/18 sunoil imports at 15.5 million tonnes.

India imported 15 million tonnes of sunoil in 2016/17.