China leading importer of oil, fat produce from Russia, purchases $1 bln - Agroexport

MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) - China is the leading importer of oil and fat produce from Russia this year, according to data from May 10.

Head of the Agroexport federal center Ilya Ilyushin told Interfax that China had made up 28% of the total oil and fat products exported by Russia in value terms.

"Russia has supplied over 1.4 million tonnes of this produce to China this year, for $1 billion. This is a 1.6-fold increase year-on-year in weight terms and in value terms. A key driver was rapeseed oil exports. Apart from this, Russia supplies the Chinese market with sunflower oil, soybean oil, oil cakes and grist, margarine and produce for making sauces," Ilyushin said.

Agroexport has reported that China imported 0.6 million tonnes of plant meal from Russia in January-April, an all-time record for the first four months of the year. These imports increased almost 1.8-fold YoY.

Soybean meal imports increased 9.1-fold YoY to a record 30,000 tonnes. Sunflower meal shipments increased by a third to 0.2 million tonnes, allowing China to remain a key importer.

China has become the main export market for Russian oil and fat produce this year.