Ukraine exports 2.4M tonnes of sunflower oil in first half of 2025
Ukrainian sunflower oil exports totalled 2.407M tonnes, with revenues of US$2.77bn, from January-June 2025, according to data from the country’s State Customs Service reported by APK Inform, citing the press service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The main buyers of Ukrainian sunflower oil in the period were Spain and Italy, accounting for 12.88% and 12.18% of exports respectively, while India had an 11.77% share. Taken together, these countries spent US$356.945M, US$337.494M and US$326.071M respectively on sunflower oil shipments from Ukraine, the 23 July report said.
Exports of rapeseed oil decreased during this period compared to January-June 2024 by 3.6 times, to 19,992 tonnes, leading to a drop in revenue to US$58.015M.
As the main buyers of Ukrainian rapeseed oil, the Netherlands accounted for 39.29% of the exported volume, generating US$7.750M for Ukraine, while Germany accounted for 21.44% and US$4.23M in revenue, and Slovakia accounted for 13.13% and US$2.591M in revenue.
Meanwhile, Ukraine increased soyabean oil exports by 52% in the first half of this year compared to 287,052 tonnes last year and doubled its revenue to US$295.034M.
The most active buyers of Ukrainian soyabean oil included Poland with 63.97% of exports worth US$188.736M, India with 9.02% or US$26.616M and Germany with 4.04% or US$11.925M.
Ukraine’s existing processing capacities – excluding temporarily-occupied territories and active combat zones – are capable of processing the country’s entire 2025 oilseed crop of 22M tonnes as estimated by trade association Ukroliyaprom, according to a separate APK Inform report on 23 July.
Ukroliyaprom welcomed the government’s adoption of draft law No. 13157, which established a 10% export duty on rapeseed and soyabean seeds, APK Inform wrote.
According to Ukroliyaprom, the adoption of this law will increase domestic processing of these crops and boost exports of higher value-added products.
“Finally, Ukraine has created conditions for the maximum processing of key oilseeds, sunflower, soyabeans and rapeseed at domestic facilities,” the organisation was quoted as saying.
It also noted that creating conditions for maximising domestic agricultural raw material processing, particularly through the introduction of export duties on rapeseed and soyabeans, was in line with Ukraine’s Strategy for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Areas to 2030.
One of the strategy’s priorities is to promote the development of Ukrainian food production as part of a broader transition from a raw-material-based economy to high-tech industries and value-added production.
“The key task now is to maximise the processing of rapeseed and soyabeans in 2025/26,” said the association, which has forecast volumes of 1.5M-1.6M tonnes of rapeseed and 3M-3.2M tonnes of soyabeans to be processed.
This article has been republished from The Oils & Fats International.