Ukraine remains the European Union (EU)’s leading sunflowerseed oil supplier despite a decline in the country’s output compared to the previous year, according to latest European Commission (EC) figures reported by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP).
From 1 July 2024 to 2 February 2025, the EU- 27 imported around 1.24M tonnes of sunflowerseed oil, significantly less than the 1.51M tonnes imported during the same period the previous year, but more than the 1.13M tonnes recorded in the 2022/23 marketing season, the 13 February report said.
However, imports had slowed down substantially in the weeks before the report, with weekly import volumes falling from nearly 59,000 tonnes in December to just under 25,000 tonnes at the beginning of February.
Ukraine was by far the leading country of origin, delivering 1.17M tonnes of sunflowerseed oil to the EU to date, which represented a market share of 94%, according to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft.
However, the volume was lower than the 1.40M tonnes supplied to the EU during the same period the previous year.
The decline in production was due to the significant drop in feedstock supply this season, which had reduced processing and limited Ukraine’s sunflowerseed oil export potential, the report said.
Serbia and Bosnia were the second and third most important suppliers, with respective market shares of 3% and just under 1%.
However, their exports also remained below the previous year’s levels, the report said.
