In the first 8 months of this year, oilseed exports from Russia have significantly decreased, which is explained by an increase in domestic processing.
During this period, Russia exported approximately 33% less oilseeds than during the same period of the previous year, analysts note.
This affected almost all crops. In total, Russia exported about 2 million tons of oilseeds.
For example, the volume of sunflower exports amounted to about 190 thousand tons, this is a 13% drop.
About 600 thousand tons of soybeans were exported, here the drop is 34%.
For rapeseed, the drop was 29%, 450 thousand tons were exported.
Finally, the drop in the volume of flax supplies also amounted to 34%, 640 thousand tons were exported.
At the same time, the main buyers of sunflower were the EAEU countries, soybeans — China, rapeseed — China and Belarus, flax — China and Belgium.
At the same time, positive dynamics are observed in the sphere of vegetable oil exports.
In general, about 5 million tons of oils were sold in January-August of this year, which is 10% more than in the same period of 2023. At the same time, sunflower oil exports increased by 26% and amounted to 3.77 million tons.
The volume of soybean oil sales abroad increased by 18% and amounted to 500 thousand tons.
And only rapeseed oil shipments decreased by 36% and amounted to about 8700 thousand tons.
Analysts believe that the growth in processing volumes is not surprising.
«Last year’s record harvest, plus the processing of large carry-over raw materials accumulated over several seasons, allowed us to increase the production of oils, and accordingly, their exports also grew by 10%,» notes Mikhail Maltsev, Executive Director of the Russian Oil and Fat Union.
In his opinion, the high volumes of oil exports were also largely facilitated by the established stable prices.
At the same time, the insignificant difference in price between soybean and palm oils forced many buyers to choose the former, as being of higher quality.
Demand for it has grown to a large extent due to countries such as China and India, as well as Turkey and Egypt.
At the same time, analysts note that Russia has done a lot in recent years to develop the export of both vegetable oils and meals.
However, the current season promises to be difficult, because the oilseed harvest in the Russian Federation is significantly lower than last year, and the carry-over stocks are small, so enterprises will most likely have to compete with each other for raw materials.
