Ukraine expecting decline in sunflower seed prices if global market's sunflower oil prices fall

MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - Ukrainian farmers have collected sunflower from nearly 91% of the forecast harvesting area, but the oilseed supply in the market remains limited as farmers are reluctant to sell the produce, thus leading to a rise in prices, Ukrainian media said, citing the APK-Inform information and analytical agency.

"Farmers' reluctance to sell raw stuff in expectation of new price peaks, along with the growing prices for sunflower oil exports, contributed to a further increase in oilseed prices," the agency's analysts said.

Though processing enterprises managed to buy sunflower within UAH 24,400/25,000 per tonne CPT, there were also much higher prices in the market, which were named by raw stuff owners individually, they said.

"The sunflower seed market is already overheated to quite a serious degree, but it still lacks backing from the sunflower oil market. However, in the event of a reversal of the price trend in the sunflower oil market, raw stuff prices are likely to drop too," they said.