Source: Oleoscope (Russia)
Due to the limited supply of sunflower seeds on the Ukrainian market, three plants of Kernel, the largest sunflower oil producer in the country, switched to processing other oilseeds at the end of last year. “In January 2025, one of the plants completely stopped working due to a shortage of raw materials,” the company’s report notes.
Meanwhile, Kernel processed 973,000 tons of oilseeds in October-December 2024, up 20% year-on-year. Such growth was possible due to the launch of a new oilseed processing plant in Western Ukraine in February last year, the company said. During the reporting period, Khmelnytchyna MEZ processed 93 thousand tons of soybeans and 14 thousand tons of rapeseed.
The report notes that processing volumes in October-December 2024 increased by 42% compared to the previous quarter, during which regular monthly maintenance was carried out.
Edible oil sales in the first half of the 2024/25 season declined 31% y-o-y to 269,000 tons, including 18,000 tons of bottled sunflower oil.
EBITDA margin decreased to $136/t compared to $171/t in 1Q 2024 due to increased competition for lower raw material supply in Ukraine. As a consequence, segment EBITDA amounted to $37 million, down 37% year-on-year.
“With the sunflower harvest coming to an end, we maintain our new season crop estimate at 12.2 million tons. This relatively low harvest combined with expanded oilseed processing capacity continues to put significant pressure on the decline in processing margins,” the company said.
Earlier it became known that the forecast area of sowing oilseeds in Ukraine has decreased, including sunflower is planned to sow 5.171 million hectares against 5.3 million hectares last year.