For the reason that conflict between Russia and Ukraine started, the latter's sunflower oil has been diverted largely to Europe, whereas Russia's simpler and guaranteed entry to seaports has made it a extra reliable provider for India, trade insiders mentioned. Business representatives of Russia and India just lately visited one another's nations to additional strengthen the provision chain, they mentioned.
Sunflower oil is among the many three largest consumed edible oils in India. Lower than 5% of the sunflower oil consumed in India is produced domestically. “Russia is the biggest and most dependable supply of sunflower oil on the earth. We get benefit of provide chain reliability,” mentioned Sanjeev Asthana, CEO of Patanjali Meals and president of trade physique Solvent Extractors' Affiliation of India (SEA).
The share of Russian oil in India's whole sunflower oil imports was round 10% in 2021, which rose to 56% in 2024. India imported 2.09 million tonnes of sunflower oil from Russia in calendar 2024, up 12 occasions from about 175,000 tonnes in 2021.
Aggressive Charges?
Earlier than the conflict, Ukraine was India's largest provider of sunflower oil. Since then, nevertheless, it has needed to divert a lot of its produce to neighbouring European nations by street and rail, as Russia blocked its seaports on the Black Sea — pushing up transport prices sharply for shipments to India. Earlier than the battle, Ukraine exported near 90% of its agricultural produce by means of seaports.Russia had an excellent larger crop of sunflowers, which it couldn't promote to Europe because the begin of the conflict. “They have been providing us aggressive charges, which is the requirement of the Indian market,” mentioned Sandip Bajoria, president of Worldwide Affiliation of Sunflower Oil.India meets almost 60% of its whole cooking oil requirement by means of imports. Whereas palm oil accounts for almost 50% of the overall cooking oil consumption, soyabean and sunflower oils have the second and third largest share. Indian farmers lowered sowing of sunflower within the Nineties because it not remained worthwhile as a result of enhance in cheaper imports of cooking oils. Sunflower oil imports rose considerably in latest occasions because it turned cheaper than palm oil for the primary time ever throughout 2023 and 2024, trade officers mentioned.
“The share of sunflower oil was a distant third after soyabean oil. The Russian provides have lowered this hole considerably,” Bajoria mentioned. This yr, nevertheless, sunflower oil imports are anticipated to fall by about 13% as a result of a steep worth rise. “The general imports of sunflower oil will decline this yr as there's a premium of $150 per tonne on sunflower oil over the palm oil and soyabean oil,” Bajoria mentioned. “Nevertheless, the share of Russia will stay the identical at round 55-60%.” A delegation of SEA visited Russia in September to strengthen the ties.
