Ukraine reports record-high exports of oilseed cakes and meals in MY 2019-2020

Ukrainian agri-businesses in the 2019-2020 marketing year (MY, September 2019 – August 2020) exported record-high volumes of oilseed cakes and meals, namely 4.146 million tonnes, which was 10% up on MY 2018-2019.

Read alsoFarmers thresh almost 46 mln tonnes of grain, legumes of new harvestThat is according to an annual study by LLC Stark Shipping on exports of Ukrainian oilseed cakes and meals from the country's seaports, as reported by an UNIAN correspondent on November 5.

Major buyers of Ukrainian produce

Ukraine ships oilseed cakes and meals to 20 countries. In MY 2019-2020, major buyers were China (1.77 million tonnes), which accounted for 43% of total exports, as well as France (406,000 tonnes), Turkey (371,000 tonnes), Spain (288,000 tonnes), and Morocco (281,000 tonnes).

"Over the period under review, China significantly boosted imports of Ukrainian sunflower meals, up to 1,773,676 tonnes against 948,526 tonnes year-over-year. Chinese consumers find it unprofitable to buy American soybeans because of high import duties. Therefore, they are interested in Ukrainian sunflower meals as a good and relatively inexpensive source of protein," the company said in its study.

MY 2019-2020 saw India's significant rise in the ranking as an importer of sunflower meals, even despite increased import duties.

At the same time, European Union member states continued reducing imports in the marketing year. The Netherlands, as the EU's main importer of Ukrainian oilseed meals, cut purchases by 71%.

Key exporters of Ukrainian oilseed cakes and meals were Kernel (999,000 tonnes), Bunge (672,000 tonnes), and Alfa Trading (275,000 tonnes).

Background

Ukraine in MY 2019-2020 updated its record-high exports of grain and legumes, as well as flour, having supplied 57.2 million tonnes of the produce onto foreign markets.