Russian companies are starting to supply more and more sunflower oil to the Middle East, including Iran.
Moreover, the share of deliveries of this product in bottled form is growing.
In 2002, the export of bottled oil brought in revenues of about 3.5 billion rubles.
At the same time, supplies of not only sunflower oil, but also others, including rapeseed and soybean, are growing.
At the moment, the possibility of exporting corn oil is also being considered, and for this, in principle, there is everything necessary: there are both raw materials and production technologies.
Today, Russia is actively entering the Middle East and Asian markets.
For example, in 2023, supplies of sunflower oil have already begun in Egypt. This is all the more relevant because of the sanctions have to leave many familiar markets.
Bottled oil is more profitable than draft oil
Traditionally, Russia exported oil in large volumes, using large vessels for this, where the oil was simply poured into large containers.
Recently, however, supplies of bottled oil have been tested.
Of course, the cost of production is higher than that of draft, but the margin is also higher.
So far, bottled oil is actively sold mainly to neighboring countries — for example, to the CIS countries, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan.
However, there are experiments with deliveries to far-abroad countries: China, Iran or Afghanistan.
According to Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Russian Oil and Fat Union, bottled oil exports grew by 10% last year.
First of all, among the buyers are the countries of the EAEU, as well as Uzbekistan. In addition, the list of active buyers of this Russian product includes Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Georgia.
At the same time, Iran remains one of the most promising buyers of Russian sunflower oil.
And at the moment there is actively growing, including the consumption of this product.
According to Kirill Lozovoy, an analyst at the OleoScope information and analytical agency, if in 2021 the volume of consumption was no more than 300,000 tons per year, now this figure has tripled.
This is largely due to the growth of the population in this country: 10 years ago, 75 million people lived there, now it is about 87 million.
This is one of the factors why the demand for sunflower oil is growing.
In addition, the country is now recovering from the pandemic, which can also become an incentive for economic growth, living standards, and hence oil consumption.
