Egypt bought sunflower oil at a price of $150/t lower than in February

Egypt's state-owned operator GASC this week held an international tender for the purchase of vegetable oils, where it purchased 35,000 tons of sunflower oil, but refused to buy soybean oil, as its prices were $80/t higher than sunflower oil.

At the tender on April 19, GASC purchased 35 thousand tons of sunflower oil (17 thousand tons from Agric, 12 thousand from Green Suppliers and 6 thousand from TOI Commodities) with delivery from May 25 to June 18, 2023 and immediate payment for at an average price of $1,020/t S&F, which is $150/t lower than the purchase price of the previous tender held at the end of February.

Tendered sunflower oil offers were priced at $1,038-$1,070/t with immediate payment or $1,080-$1,110/t with payment within 180 days, while soybean oil offers were priced at $1,100-$1,113.5/t with immediate payment and $1,153.5 -1155 $/t with payment within 180 days.

The willingness of sunflower oil sellers to lower prices allowed GASC to significantly reduce the purchase price. We will remind that recently the prices of sunflower oil fell below the level of soybean prices, and in India due to the high import duty - even below the level of palm oil prices.

According to Reuters, Indian buyers canceled the purchase of 75,000 tons of palm oil for the first time in many years, preferring competing oils, including soybean and sunflower. Palm oil is usually sold cheaper than other soft oils, but restrictions on palm oil imports imposed by Indonesia (the world's largest producer) have significantly increased palm oil prices, making soybean and sunflower oils more attractive to buyers.

A cut in palm oil imports by India, the world's largest buyer of vegetable oils, will weigh on palm oil prices in Malaysia but support soybean and sunflower oil prices.