Prices for Ukrainian sunflower oil hit another 4-year high: analysts
Export quotations for Ukrainian crude sunflower oil rose to 1,300 USD/t FOB, a new 4-year high, Refinitiv Agriculture reports.
"The price increase was driven by strengthening quotations for other vegetable oils and limited supply of sunoil," the report reads.
Offer prices for oil in February-March exceed 1,300 USD/t FOB. At the same time, importers' demand remains low due to excessively high prices for sunflower oil. The spread between prices for sunflower and soybean oil at the markets is at least 220 USD/t, despite the significant strengthening of the price of soybean oil in the last few days.
"Consumers are not ready for such high prices for sunflower oil and are switching to the purchase of other types of oil," a Ukrainian trader argues.
It is noted that during the period October-February 2020/21(September-August) exports of sunflower oil from Ukraine reached almost 2.1 mln t, compared to 1.9 mln t for the same period of 2019/20.
Based on preliminary statistics, the sunflower harvest in Ukraine in 2020 decreased to 13.1 mln t (2019: 15.2 mln t).
In the February report, the USDA experts estimated the world sunflower oil production at 19.47 mln t in 2020/21, which is 2.03 mln t or 9.4% lower from the previous season.
