Source: Oleoscope (Russia)
From January to August, China imported rapeseed oil from Russia worth 661.5 million dollars, which is 1.5 times less than in the same period last year (1.003 billion dollars), reports Finmarket, citing documents from China’s State Customs Administration.
However, despite the decline, Russia remained the largest supplier of this oil to the Chinese market, as it was a year ago. The second largest exporter is the United Arab Emirates with 185.9 million dollars. The supply of rapeseed oil from Belarus amounted to 152 million dollars. 21 countries supplied rapeseed oil to China this year.
As reported, rapeseed oil is one of the most important items of Russian agricultural exports to China. In 2023, it accounted for 17% of deliveries (by value).
According to Rosstat, the area under rapeseed cultivation in Russia has increased by 29.3% to 2.726 million hectares this year. According to experts’ forecasts, the harvest could break another record and rise to 5 million tons, which is 0.8 million tons more than in 2023. According to estimates by the Oil and Fat Union, cited by the Agroexport Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, rapeseed oil production this season will amount to 1.4 million tons. Since domestic consumption of this oil does not exceed 50 thousand tons per year, the rest of the volume is to be exported.
Previously, also based on GTU data, it had become known that China had also reduced its purchases of Russian rapeseed from January to August. They amounted to 85.8 million dollars compared to 108.9 million dollars in the same period last year. In August, rapeseed deliveries from Russia fell from 26.1 million dollars to 8.2 million dollars.