The government has decided to keep the export duty on sunflower oil at zero in order to stimulate its production within the country.
The duty on sunflower oil exports has remained at zero for now. It is emphasized that the zero duty was first set last summer, and it has not changed since then.
At the same time, the duty on the export of meal from the country is currently quite high, it has even increased from 900 rubles per ton to 1870 rubles.
The zero duty on oil significantly contributes to increasing its exports, since selling oil without a duty is much more profitable than selling meal with a duty, not to mention the fact that oil is a deeply processed product and has a higher price.
According to the Oil and Fat Union, during the current season, the total export of sunflower oil may exceed 4.8 million tons. This is a significant increase compared to last year’s level (+700 thousand tons).
At the same time, despite the duty, the export of meal is not only maintained, but also growing. It is expected that this season it will amount to 2.8 million tons, which is 600 thousand tons higher than last year.
In general, Russia can currently be called the third largest exporter of vegetable oil to the world market.
Its share is about 8%, which is quite a lot. At the same time, Russia is second only to two countries — Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply even more palm oil than Russia supplies sunflower oil.
One of the main buyers of oil from Russia at the moment is India, and significant importers of this type of product are also China and Turkey.
At the same time, Russia may further increase its share in the structure of Indian imports, experts believe.
There is a possibility that already in the current season Russia will supply India with up to 40% of all sunflower oil purchased abroad.
However, there are obstacles to increasing oil supplies to India that need to be overcome somehow.
One of the main obstacles today can be considered the lack of an effective payment system that would allow for smooth payments under Western sanctions.
What are the forecasts for next year?
There is reason to believe that the sunflower harvest this year will be about 16.5 million tons, and oil production – about 6.4 million tons.
Taking into account domestic consumption, this may mean that the export volume will decrease compared to this year and will be about 4 million tons.
