Ukraine Sunflower Seed insights

Harvesting of late crops continues in Ukraine, and as of November 7, 9.68 million tons of sunflower (from 95% of the area), 5.82 million tons of soybeans (from 96% of the area) and 20.24 million tons of corn (from 83% of the area) ). As of November 4, 2024, 4,296,000 ha (96% of the planned area) were sown with winter wheat, 543,600 ha (85%) with winter barley, and 1,073,500 ha (96%) with rapeseed. On November 1-6, Ukraine exported 612.2 thousand tons of corn, 199.3 thousand tons of wheat, 13.2 thousand tons of barley, 104.2 thousand tons of soybeans, 139.4 thousand tons of rapeseed, 0.2 thousand tons of sunflower, 96 thousand tons of sunflower oil, 5.2 thousand tons of soybean oil and 56 thousand tons of soybean and sunflower pulp. China imported 8.09 million tons of soybeans in October, which was the highest monthly figure in the last 4 years. At the same time, in 2024/25 the EU increased corn imports compared to the previous season by 8% to 6.6 million tons. At the same time, compared to last year, the share of the USA in the volume of corn imported to the EU increased from 1.4% to 18.6 %, Serbia - from 1.4% to 6.8%, and Brazil decreased from 42.7% to 20%. There is no sharp increase in quotations on MATIF yet

Ukraine’s sunflower seed harvest may jump by 6-8% in 2025 thanks to a possible 5% rise in next year’s sowing area, analyst APK-Inform said on Monday. Ukraine is a major global sunseed grower and sunflower oil exporter. The consultancy said that the “current pricing situation in this sector” was the main reason for the higher outlook. APK-Inform said last week that indicative export prices for Ukrainian sunflower seeds continued to rise, adding another $15-$30 per metric ton over the past seven days and reaching $505-$535 on a Carriage Paid To (CPT) basis as of Nov. 6. Ukraine has almost completed the 2024 sunseed harvest, threshing 9.6 million metric tons of the commodity from 95.2% of the planted area as of Nov. 8. “The expansion of the area can be mainly due to the planting of soybeans, which in most cases did not show the expected yields due to both weather conditions and sowing in in regions that are not entirely favourable for it,” APK-Inform said.

Rise in prices for palm oil supports prices for soybean and sunflower oil, which leads to higher purchase prices for sunseed in Ukraine. For two weeks of speculative growth, palm oil futures in Malaysia rose by 15% to 1179 $/t, and soybean oil in Chicago - by 14.3% to 1060 $/t, while according to Trading