Purchase prices for sunflower seeds in Ukraine have increased sharply against the background of rising prices for vegetable oils

This week, trade activity intensified in the Ukrainian market and processors sharply increased purchase prices for sunflower due to a sharp increase in vegetable oil prices over the past 10 days amid rising oil prices and forecasts of a reduction in soybean production in South America.

In Ukraine, prices for sunflower seeds with an oil content of 50% added 500-1000 UAH/ton to 20500-21000 UAH/ton (6 655-670 / ton excluding VAT) with delivery to the plant, while some processors have sufficient reserves of raw materials and are in no hurry to raise prices sharply.

But the increase in sunflower oil prices continues to follow the increase in prices for palm and soybean oils, which will support sunflower prices in the near future.

Prices for sunflower oil rose by 3 30-40 / ton to F 1370-1400/ton FOB under the pressure of a sharp drop in prices for palm and soybean oil.

February palm oil futures on the Malaysian stock exchange rose again yesterday and reached a new record of 5069 ringgit/ton or 1 1208/ton, adding 3.1% over the week.

March soybean oil futures on the Chicago Stock Exchange added 1.3% yesterday, offsetting a decline on Monday and are trading at 1 1,297/ton, which corresponds to the level of a week ago.

 On the eve of the release of the updated global balance of oilseeds, analysts give their forecasts for soybean production in Brazil and Argentina. Past and projected precipitation next week calmed traders down a little, and the forecasts for crop decline are already more modest, so the average estimate of soybean production in Brazil was reduced by 2.4 million tons to 141.6 million tons ( for example, AgRural reduced to 134 million tons), and in Argentina reduced by 1.3 million tons to 48.2 million tons, which will lead to a decrease in World reserves by 2.3 million tons to 99.7 million tons, which corresponds to the level of last season.

Brazilian agency CONAB lowered its forecast for soybean production in Brazil by 0.25 million tons to 140.5 million tons due to a decrease in the soybean crop in the state of Parana by 2.2 million tons.

The decline in oil supplies from Kazakhstan caused a sharp jump in oil prices and March Brent crude futures yesterday rose by 3.5% to 8 83.9 per barrel in general, having risen by 7.5% since the beginning of the year. Normalization of the situation in Kazakhstan, as well as the resumption of production in Libya, where production declined last week due to the closure of a key oil pipeline in the east of the country, as well as negative statistics of infections and state hospitalization of coronavirus in the United States will put pressure on oil prices in the near future, which will also affect the prices of vegetable oils in the future two to three weeks.