01.09.2025

Sunflower oil production has fallen sharply in Russia: by the end of August, output had fallen by 11% year-on-year to 6.94 million tons. At the same time, the overall volume of vegetable oil production in the country has fallen by 7% year-on-year to 9.47 million tons. This follows from OleoScope data cited by Kommersant. Such figures are related to the shutdown of some plants, whose profitability in February was minus 20%, says Dmitry Krasnov, Managing Director of the Competence Center in the AIC at Reksoft Consulting. According to OleoScope data, the total volume of processing in Russia has fallen by 5.7% over the year to 26.3 million tons.

According to Mikhail Maltsev, Executive Director of the Oil and Fat Union, the processing economy has gone into the red due to the increase in the cost of seeds, stagnation of world prices, the strengthening of the ruble and current duties. The marginality of unrefined sunflower oil has decreased from 11.4% at the end of 2023 to 0.6% in the first quarter of 2025, calculated Albina Koryagina, Business Development Partner at Neo. In the refined segment, the figure is higher – 5.9%, but in general, the deterioration of the economy makes the production of sunflower oil of little interest to business, the expert noted.

Thus, in March, one of the largest agro-industrial companies in Russia, Efko, announced the suspension of two enterprises in the Krasnodar region with a total capacity of 3.2 thousand tons per day . Co-founder of the Natural Products company, Alexey Podobedov, said in the spring that the factories producing oil have continued to operate “in the minus” for more than six months. “We are no longer counting on this season, the task is to hold out and wait for the next one,” the businessman explained.

In the new agricultural year, which began on September 1, the market may establish a balance in prices for raw materials and finished products, says Maltsev from the Oil and Fat Union. According to him, the production of vegetable oils may grow by 7.5% over the next 12 months – up to 10.5 million tons. Krasnov from the Reksoft Consulting agro-industrial complex recalls that the area under sunflower has increased by 13% over the year. According to his calculations, this will lead to an increase in the harvest from 16.9 million to 18 million tons in favorable weather and, accordingly, an increase in processing.

Over the past 12 months, sunflower oil exports have fallen by 11% to 4.72 million tons, OleoScope notes. At the same time, in monetary terms, deliveries abroad in January-July amounted to $2.9 billion, adding 3% year-on-year, says Ilya Ilyushin, head of Agroexport. If production increases in the new agricultural year, exports of all types of vegetable oil may grow by 21% to 8.2 million tons, the Oil and Fat Union believes. However, according to Krasnov, this is unlikely to happen due to increased competition in international markets.

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2025