Scarcity of global supply has made vegetable oil prices soar in the past 6 months

Published Mar 29, 2021

Tridge summary

Between late 2020 and early 2021, prices for various vegetable oils, including soybean, sunflower, palm, and canola, significantly increased. Sunflower oil prices reached over $1,700 per ton, while soybean oil and canola oil were traded around $1,500 per ton and $525 per ton, respectively. The rise in oil prices has led to an shift in preference towards palm oil, which is more affordable.

Ukraine's production and exports of soybean oil are expected to decrease for the 2020/21 season, dropping to 6,219 million tons and 5,780 million tons, respectively, compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, India, the world's leading importer of palm oil, experienced a 27% decrease in palm oil imports in February 2021, with stored crude palm oil in Indian seaports falling sharply. However, it is anticipated that palm oil imports will recover in March and April 2021 due to increased demand from hotels and restaurants.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

In the past half year, soybean oil increased the most by 67%, sunflower oil prices up 42%, Malaysian palm oil up 42%, canola oil up 36%. Sunflower oil prices have exceeded 1,700 USD / ton; Ukrainian soybean oil is currently traded at around $ 1,500 / ton; Canadian rapeseed oil price is about 840 CAD / ton (equivalent to about 525 EUR / ton). With the rising prices of vegetable oils, many users have switched from expensive oils such as sunflower or soybean to palm oil - which are cheaper. Production and exports of soybean oil Ukraine 2020/21 are forecast to decrease compared to the previous year, reaching only 6,219 million tons and 5,780 million tons, respectively. Ukraine produced 7 million tons of sunflower oil and exported 6,632 million tons of this oil in 2019/20. The country's Ministry of Economy forecasts that the output of sunflower seeds in 2021 will reach 13.5 million tons, compared with 13.1 million tons in 2020. India is the leading importer of palm oil in the world. ...

Source: Vinanet