Kazakhstan reduces sunflower exports due to high seed prices

According to the National Statistics Bureau of Kazakhstan, in February, sunflower exports from the country decreased by 2.6 times compared to January to 8.8 thousand tons (excluding supplies to the EAEU countries), and in total for 6 months of the 2025/26 MY reached 115.2 thousand tons, which is 12% lower than the pace of the previous season and is 56% of the forecast.

 

Thus, supplies to China decreased by 12% to 95.4 thousand tons, to Uzbekistan - by 4.5 times to 2.7 thousand tons, to Tajikistan - by 2.7 times to 0.9 thousand, and only Turkey increased purchases by 5.8 times to 6.1 thousand tons.

 

The reason for the reduction in exports was the high cost of sunflower in Kazakhstan and a 20% export duty, which cannot be lower than €100/t. Against this background, the forecast for sunflower exports for the 2025/26 MY has been reduced by 30 thousand tons to 205 thousand tons.

 

The main buyer of Kazakh sunflower remains China, whose share in total exports is 83% (82% in 2024/25 MY).

 

Imports of sunflower, which were carried out mainly from the border regions of the Russian Federation, decreased by 6.7% compared to the previous season to 60.8 thousand tons (excluding the EAEU countries).

 

Recall that in the 2025/26 MY, Kazakhstan harvested a record 2.5 million tons of sunflower, and thanks to the active expansion of processing capacities, it became a major global producer and exporter of sunflower oil, increasing its share in the Chinese market.