Palm and soybean oil are becoming more expensive, and Ukraine is looking for ways to sell sunflower oil

Russia's war against a free and democratic Ukraine continues, and another escalation this week will increase pressure on oil and vegetable oil prices. The blockade of Ukrainian ports prevents the supply of sunflower oil to world markets, which continues to heat up prices for vegetable oils.

June palm oil futures on the Malaysian Stock Exchange on Monday rose 2.7% to 6463 ringgit / t or $ 1518 / t, adding 5.3% for the week. The market did not react to the data on the reduction of palm oil exports from Malaysia during April 1-15 compared to the same period in March by 14-23%, as it does not expect the resumption of exports of sunflower oil, and therefore. And declining demand for palm.

May futures for soybean oil on the Chicago Stock Exchange rose by 1.5% on Monday to $ 1767 / t, adding 2.8% for the week.

According to the Ukroliyaprom association, there are millions of tons of sunflower oil in Ukrainian ports, and of all the processing plants that most stopped after the war, only six have resumed operations.

Ukraine is currently trying to export sunflower oil across the western border by car and rail, but Europe is not ready to accept such volumes, as it does not have terminals with the necessary capacity. Therefore, in 14 days of April, Ukraine was able to export only 24 thousand tons of oil, which in peacetime is equal to daily production.

Under the pressure of a significant volume of supply, the price of demand for sunflower oil with delivery to Poland or Romania fell to 1500-1600 $ / t DAP.

It is worth noting that prices for Russian sunflower oil delivered to Black Sea ports are also falling under the pressure of sanctions, which complicate calculations and increase the cost of freight. According to APK-Inform, during the week the prices of offers of unrefined sunflower oil with delivery in April-May decreased by $ 155-170 / t to 1845-1880 $ / t FOB, and demand prices - to 1750-1785 $ / t FOB .

The introduction of quotas on sunflower oil exports from Russia has slowed the fall in its prices, so further reductions should not be expected.

An international coalition can unblock Ukrainian ports, so the UN must organize such an operation to remove international ships from Ukrainian ports, as more than 1 million tons of grain and 200,000 tons of sunflower oil are currently damaged.