Ukraine to boost oilseed harvest 7.7% in 2023-2024 agricultural season - sector association

MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) - Ukraine expects to boost harvesting the main types of oilseeds by 7.7% year-on-year to 19.5 million tonnes in the September 2023 to August 2024 agricultural season, Ukrainian media reported, citing the forecast of the UkrOliyaProm Association.

UkrOliyaProm forecasts soybeans to demonstrate the highest growth in production at 12.2% to 4.107 million tonnes owing to a 20.5% increase in the sown area to 1.84 million hectares, though crop yield should rise only 0.4% to 22.3 centners per hectare.

Sunflower seed output should increase 6.5% to 11.813 million tonnes. UkrOliyaProm expects crop yield to be 3.3% lower year-on-year at 20.9 c/ha despite expanding the sown area 7.7% to 5.64 million hectares.

UkrOliyaProm forecasts the gross rapeseed harvest to rise 9.1% to 3.318 million tonnes from nearly 1.35 million hectares, an increase of 16.3%, with a crop yield of 26.5 c/ha, a decline of 9.3%.

"Meantime, the significantly lower carryover of oilseeds in Ukraine at the beginning of 2023-2024 should be taken into account against the beginning of the previous season. Accordingly, supply will be less in 2023-2024, thereby requiring urgent measures at the government level to create conditions for maximum domestic processing and boosting exports of high value-added products," UkrOliyaProm said.

Ukraine is losing markets for sunflower oil and meal by exporting sunflower seeds in volumes sufficient to meet the needs of the European Union and other countries, UkrOliyaProm said.

"The mass export of oilseeds from Ukraine to the global market has resulted in a sharp drop in prices, thereby causing dissatisfaction among farmers in European countries. As a result, the massive export of sunflower seeds from Ukraine has led several EU countries to ban imports into their territory until mid-September 2023, and possibly until 2024," UkrOliyaProm noted.

UkrOliyaProm also reports that exports of soybeans should increase more than three-fold to exceed three million tonnes in the 2022-2023 agricultural year.

"This could negatively affect domestic processing, which not only remained steady under martial law, but also rose," UkrOliyaProm stressed.

UkrOliyaProm Association of domestic fat and oil producers was established in 1998.