If we take data for 2023, then the export of rapeseed oil outside the Russian Federation increased by a significant amount of 72%.
The total export volume was about 1.7 million tons.
Experts identify several reasons that made this possible.
Firstly, high rapeseed yield.
As a result, the production of rapeseed oil within the country last year increased by one third, reaching a level of about 1.5 million tons.
Moreover, it is assumed that good results will continue this season. Most likely, at least 1.4 million tons will also be produced.
At the same time, as noted by Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Fat and Oil Union, rapeseed and rapeseed oil in Russia are initially export-oriented products.
Domestic consumption of such oil today is very modest: only 50 thousand tons per year. Consequently, almost the entire volume produced can be sent abroad.
Secondly, demand from buyers increases.
The main importer of Russian rapeseed oil this season was China; it purchased approximately 1.45 million tons of oil.
This is more than 2 times more than the result of the previous year. In value terms, deliveries also increased, although only by 50%, as prices fell.
Previously, EU countries were also active consumers of Russian rapeseed oil, but in the last year the volume of supplies there has decreased quite sharply.
For example, exports to Latvia fell by 20%, to 75 thousand tons, to Norway — 4 times, to 16 thousand tons.
Supplies to Turkey fell by 60%, to 9 thousand tons, supplies to Belarus increased by 12% and amounted to 8 thousand tons.
However, it is easy to notice that the volumes of rapeseed oil exports to all these countries, which are among the top 5 of its buyers from Russia, are not comparable with the volumes purchased by China; it accounted for more than 90% of the total export volume.
Another factor that plays in favor of increasing rapeseed oil production is restrictions on the export of raw materials (rapeseed) from the country
Despite the fact that China bought about 300 thousand tons of rapeseed last year, the bulk of its harvest was still processed, which made it possible to add value to these products.
At the same time, there are now also restrictive measures on the export of sunflowers and sunflower oil, against this background rapeseed is becoming more attractive to farmers.
“The Russian rapeseed oil market is a fairly classic example of an export-oriented agricultural sector.
There are no major changes in domestic consumption of the product.
In recent years, the figure has been at the level of 40 thousand tons and there are no prerequisites for significant growth yet,” says Kirill Lozovoy, an analyst at the Oleoscope information and analytical agency.
