Experts suggest that Russia may produce more oil this year than in the previous year, and there are drivers for such growth.
Demand for Russian agricultural products, in particular oil, is currently growing abroad.
In addition, the country has a ban on the export of raw materials such as sunflower.
All this together contributes to the development of oil production within the country, experts say.
As a result, the volume of oilseed processing in the Russian Federation this year may increase to 33 million tons, which will be an increase of 2 million tons compared to the previous season. This was stated by the executive director of the Fat and Oil Union, Mikhail Maltsev.
This year, about 2 million tons of additional processing capacity may be launched, and if we take into account those projects that have already been launched or planned, then in 2 years we can expect an increase of the entire 4 million tons.
As Maltsev noted, all this fits well within the framework of the task set by the country’s President Vladimir Putin: by 2030, increase the volume of agricultural production by 25%, and the volume of exports of such products by 1.5 times.
As for the oilseed industry, it not only must fulfill this requirement, but is also unlikely to encounter great difficulties, the expert believes.
Production of raw materials may not keep pace with processing
At the end of last year, the total volume of processing capacity in the Russian Federation was about 31 million tons. This allows about 16 million tons to be processed on the domestic market, although a year ago this figure was about 14 million tons.
From this it is obvious that a significant part of the capacity is still idle.
Against this background, competition for raw materials is increasing, which is observed today in almost all regions of the Russian Federation.
In particular, difficulties arise for enterprises that require soybeans as a raw material.
High competition for these products led to an unusual phenomenon: prices within the country began to rise, even though the general world market situation was not favorable to this.
At the same time, this season the situation with a shortage of raw materials may worsen due to unfavorable weather conditions.
In particular, May frosts could be a big problem, which could lead to the death of large areas, the volume of which has yet to be assessed, and the need for reseeding.
At the same time, this year the area under oilseeds should increase from 16.96 million hectares to 17 million hectares, and under soybeans — from 2.25 million to 2.35 million.
All this should help provide processing plants with raw materials, not only for today, but also for the future.
