Ukraine processes 1 mln tonnes of sunflower in July - analysts

MOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) - Ukraine continued to reduce sunflower processing in July due to a seasonal drop in sunflower stocks and transition to rapeseed, but its volumes were higher than previous estimates and reached slightly more than 1 million tonnes, Ukrainian media reported, citing a statement by the APK-Inform information and analytical agency as saying.

"This figure is 10% lower than the processing volume seen in June, but it is one of the highest processing figures for July," analysts said.

Ukraine has processed around 14.4 million tonnes over just 11 months of the 2023-2024 marketing year, which is the maximum volume for the industry over the past four seasons and the third highest for the period in history after the 2019-2020 MY (15.4 million tonnes for September-July) and the 2018-2019 MY (14.6 million tonnes), they said.

Experts said that the forecast for sunflower processing in the 2023-2024 season was upgraded to 15.2 million tonnes, which is 7% higher than the preliminary estimate and 9% higher than it was last season.

"This is very close to the maximum indicators in pre-crisis times and exceeds both official data on the production of the said oilseed in the country and the harvest estimates by most experts in 2023," APK-Inform said.