Turkey is losing interest in imports of sunseed and its products amid high domestic supply

According to Oil World (Germany), Turkey reduced the imports of sunseed and its products in June due to high domestic stocks. Thus, in the reporting month, the imports of sunflower seeds were estimated at 87 thsd tonnes, down from 168 thsd tonnes in May and 151 thsd tonnes in June 2022, sunflower oil – 86 (269; 77) thsd tonnes, and meal – 88 (105; 60) thsd tonnes.

As specified, the main suppliers of sunflower seeds to the Turkish market in June were Ukraine – 30 (71, 128) thsd tonnes, Bulgaria – 15 (19, 1) thsd tonnes and Romania – 31 (65, not exported) thsd tonnes.

As for sunflower oil, imports were carried out from Ukraine – 40 (135; 33) thousand tons, Russia – 40 (132; 44) thousand tons, and Bulgaria – 5 (2; not carried out) thousand tons.

Sunflower meal was supplied by Russia and Ukraine – 70 (75; 44) thsd tonnes and 18 (22; 15) thsd tonnes respectively.

Experts expect that Turkey’s imports of sunseed and its products will fall sharply in July-September 2023 and will be lower than the previous year. This is due to the increase of the import duty on crude sunflower oil for food purposes to 36% and sunflower seeds to 27% by the government on June 1 to protect local farmers during the active sales of sunflower crop in this year.

In total, since the beginning of 2022/23 MY (September-June), the country has purchased 945 thsd tonnes of sunflower seeds compared to 456 thsd tonnes in the same period of 2021/22 MY, 1.18 (0.86) mln tonnes of sunflower oil and 777 (726) thsd tonnes of sunflower meal.

Tags: sunflower oil, Turkey, sunseed, sunflower meal