Sunflower prices in Ukraine continue to rise due to slow sales.
Sunflower prices in Ukraine rose as seed shortages and refinery restarts boosted competition, supported by high global oil prices. However, demand may ease as India cuts imports and South American crops arrive. EU sunflower processing fell, with factories shifting toward rapeseed and canola.
A shortage of sunflower seed supplies to factories and the resumption of operations at most oil refineries have led to a new wave of rising sunflower prices in Ukraine, amid consistently high prices for sunflower oil on the global market.
Thanks to a reduction in the intensity of shelling at ports in recent weeks, some factories in the south have resumed operations, despite power outages.
Sunflower purchase prices in Ukraine increased by UAH 500/t over the week to UAH 30,000-30,500/t or $610-620/t excluding VAT (for 50% oil content) with delivery to the plant, while competition among processors for large quantities has intensified.
Bid prices for sunflower oil in Ukraine remain at $1,270-$1,280/t with delivery to ports, while bid prices for sunflower oil with delivery to India are $1,390-$1,400/t CIF Mumbai. Therefore, domestic processors are actively selling oil in anticipation of lower prices after the new soybean and sunflower crop from South America enters the market.
As a reminder, due to rising sunflower oil prices, India, the main importer of oils, sharply reduced imports of sunflower and soybean oils in January and increased purchases of palm oil. Therefore, demand for Ukrainian sunflower oil will decrease.
In January, Ukraine exported about 393 thousand tons of sunflower oil (compared to 550 thousand tons in December), and in just 5 months of 2025/26 MY, 2.5 million tons of oil were exported out of the 4.5-5 million tons projected for the entire season.
In Argentina, as of January 28, 1.5 million tons of sunflower seeds were harvested from 24% of the area with a yield of 2.28 tons/ha, and local analysts expect the harvest to increase to 6–6.5 million tons compared to 5.2 million tons in 2024/25 MY.
According to Oil World, sunflower seed processing volumes in the EU increased seasonally in October–December 2025 to around 2.1 million tonnes (+7% year-on-year), with a total of 7.4 million tonnes of sunflower processed in 2025, the lowest figure in the last 9 years (for comparison, the processing volume in 2024 was 9 million tonnes).
The main reasons for the decline were a decline in sunflower production in the EU, low farmer activity in selling raw materials, and low sunflower processing margins, which forced factories to switch to processing more profitable canola and rapeseed. This transition was most active in the Netherlands, France, and Bulgaria. Sufficient global oilseed reserves and a relatively high share of oilseed production also contributed to the growth in rapeseed processing volumes in the EU. Specifically, in October-December 2025, this figure amounted to 6.6 million tonnes (up 5% year-on-year).
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Source : Ukr Agro Consult
