The 2022/23 trends in sunseed supply chains. Even high logistics costs do not limit substantially Sunflower oil exports from Ukraine

According to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the 2022/23 sunflower oil exports (September – May) amounted to slightly over 4 M mt. This is 89% of the target export volume for the current season. UkrAgroConsult forecasts, Ukraine sunflower oil exports in June-August will be about 500 K mt.

Sunflower oil shipments by land were in demand during the whole 2022/23 season being at 19-26% of total exports. Starting from January 2023, the exports have shifted to the Danube ports. In March 2023, sunflower oil exports reached the maximum monthly level.

Last September-November, intentions to build an oil pipeline to Poland were released. The capacity of the pipeline was supposedly at about 2 M mt of oil per year. However, by now the feasibility of such a project raises many questions, as the main importers of Ukrainian oil are located in Asia, and exporting oil through northern European ports may not be profitable due to high logistics costs.

This proves once more the great importance of restoration of the Black Sea ports activity as soon as possible. Another option is to include the ports of Mykolaiv region in the grain deal, as before the war half of the sunflower oil was shipped through terminals near Mykolaiv.