In terms of the current situation on the global market of high-oleic sunflower oil, when the market segment demonstrates noticeable reduction of activity from major customers, fall of bid prices for the product, as well as purchasing prices for the raw material and price premiums, in 2016/2017 MY Ukraine will be able to process and sell nearly 60% of high-oleic sunflower seed produced in 2015/2016 MY, the oilseed analyst at APK-Inform Agency Julia Ivanitskaya declared.
According to her, Ukraine will process and sell 60% of the oilseed harvest volumes as high-oleic sunflower oil, namely 274 thousand tons (up by 50% YoY). The remaining volumes will be sold as usual sunflower oil or some blend of oils.
At the same time, Ivanitskaya assumed that in terms of more favorable market conditions, the processing capacities can reach even larger indices, taking into account that the existing potential in Ukraine allows increasing the processing volumes of high-oleic sunflower by nearly 200 thousand tons.
In terms of the forecasted processing volumes in 2016/2017 MY at 274 thousand tons, the production of high-oleic sunflower oil in Ukraine will reach nearly 120 thousand tons, against 80 thousand tons in 2015/2016 MY (up by 50%), the expert said.
Also, she added that increasing of the production volumes would allow Ukraine to increase the exports of high-oleic sunflower oil to 120 thousand tons, up by 50% compared with last season.
At the same time, in the current season Ukraine can potentially produce and export nearly 200 thousand tons of high-oleic sunflower oil, depending on the global demand for the product. (APK-Inform/Business World Magazine)