Ukrainian farmers exported oilseeds worth US$1.3 billion in January-September 2017, according to the UkrAgroConsult agency referring to the Institute of Agrarian Economics.
Ukrainian experts predict that the processing of sunflower seeds and vegetable oil exports in the current 2017-2018 marketing year (MY, August 2017 - September 2018) will decline due to a reduction in the yield of sunflower seeds, which may push vegetable oil prices up, according to the UkrAgroConsult agency's press service.
Large and medium-sized Ukrainian enterprises produced 5.3 million tonnes of sunflower oil in the previous 2016-2017 marketing year (MY, September 2016 – August 2017), which is 46% higher than the previous season, setting a record over the years of Ukraine's independence, according to UkrAgroConsult.
Ukraine's exports of sunflower seeds in 2016/2017 marketing year (MY, September 2016 – August 2017) grew to 187,800 tonnes, which was a record high over the last five seasons, according to the UkrAgroConsult agency's press service.
Ukraine produced 2.87 million tonnes of crude sunflower oil in January-June 2017, which was 34.9% up on 2016, according to the country's State Statistics Service.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated sunflower oil exports from Ukraine at the level of 5 million tonnes in 2017-2018 marketing year (MY, September 2017 – August 2018), according to the USDA's May report published on the department's website.
Ukrainian growers still fail to catch up with last year’s oilseed planting pace as the weather-caused lag persists. At the same time, a boost is observed in planting operations in late April and early May, as reported by UkrAgroConsult.
Large- and medium-sized Ukrainian enterprises exported 683,470 tonnes of sunflower oil in March 2017, which was 54.7% up from February 2017 and 59.2% up year-over-year (y-o-y), according to the association of vegetable oil and animal fat producing enterprises Ukroliyaprom.