Russia. Sunflower oil production still down from last year

Russian crushers produced 516.6 KMT of vegetable oils in February 2019, or 4.2% less than in the previous month and 0.7% less than in February 2018.

In total, 3128.7 KMT of vegetable oil was made in Russia in the six months of the 2018/19 season, down 1.5% from last season (3176.1 KMT). As before, vegetable oil production is curbed by the segment of sunflower seed processing, which offsets record rape and soybean oil outputs, report UkrAgroConsult’s analysts.

Overall, this season’s sunflower oil production is 4.4% behind MY 2017/18: it totaled 2453 KMT in the reporting period against 2566 KMT a year ago. However, the current situation in the Russian market of sunflower seed and its bumper harvest suggest that sunflower seed crushing will likely pick up pace and reach an optimistic level of at least 4.7 MMT.