War dries up Europe’s access to vegetable oil

The European Union needs to find a way to replace much of the vegetable oil it used to import from Ukraine, says an industry official.

Loic Boucher, Corteva Agriscience’s oilseed marketing lead for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said Ukraine is a major global exporter of the commodity.

And the European Union is its biggest customer, accounting for 32 percent of sales in 2021. The next biggest customers are Southeast Asia at 27.4 percent and Asia at 20.1 percent.

Russia and Ukraine are responsible for 80 percent of the world’s sunflower oil exports.

The two countries harvested a record amount of the oilseed in 2021-22, with production up 18 percent year-on-year, according to UkrAgroConsult.