Sunflower to remain most profitable crop in new season, says Kernel's Osypov
Sunflower remains the most profitable crop for Ukrainian farmers and is likely to maintain this leadership in the upcoming season, stated Yevhen Osypov, CEO of Kernel, during the LatiLive project with FUIB at Grain Ukraine 2026. According to him, sunflower was the most efficient crop last season for both the company and its partners.
"Undoubtedly, sunflower was the most efficient crop last season, both for us and for our partners. Looking ahead to next year, we estimate that sunflower will continue to be the most efficient crop. Therefore, in general, farmers are trying to allocate as much acreage as possible to sunflower, within the limits of crop rotation," Osypov said.
At the same time, he noted that the Ukrainian market is entering the new season with significant carryover stocks of grain. According to Kernel's estimates, Ukraine will have around 8 million tons of carryover stocks at the beginning of the season. Combined with the new harvest, this creates a balanced market, but the situation will heavily depend on the pace of exports.
"It is crucial not to 'fail' certain months, because the inventory accumulation we are seeing today is a result of insufficient exports during the first four months of last season," he noted.
Osypov added that the logistics system is currently operating efficiently, and shipping and transhipment costs remain relatively low. However, there is no spare infrastructure capacity for a sharp increase in exports.
According to him, in the event of infrastructure damage or sales retention by farmers, grain volumes could pile up on the market and roll over to later periods of the season.
"Unfortunately, we cannot export more than 4 to 4.5 million tons per month today," the top manager of Kernel emphasised.
