Russia steps up sunflower oil exports to China as war disrupts India trade

Business Recorder reported that Russian exporters expect sunflower oil purchases by China to reach 1 million metric tons in the marketing year that opened on 1 September. The sales are being offered by land at a discount, as Black Sea port bottlenecks have made seaborne loading difficult. Shipments to India, which move by sea, are seen falling to 1.1 million tons in the current year, versus 1.5 million tons in the previous one.

Kyrylo Tyshkevych, who leads trading at Sodrugestvo Group, also projected Russian seed output at 20 million tons for the current season, up from 17.5 million tons in the previous year. He added that weaker export demand should restrain crushing, leaving 3 million tons of seed carried into the next marketing year. Ukraine, the second-largest supplier, faces similar difficulties shipping oil to India. An exporter whose Odesa-region terminal was hit during Russian strikes expects crushing there to fall by half this year.

Black Sea sunflower oil faces rivalry from palm oil produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as soyoil from South America. The exporter asked not to be identified given the continuing conflict.