In January-June 2025, Ukraine reduced exports of sunflower oil to 2.407 mln tonnes and revenues to $2.77 bln, down 33.5% and 2.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
According to the statistics released by the State Customs Service, the main buyers of Ukrainian sunflower oil in January-June this year were Spain and Italy, which accounted for 12.88% and 12.18% of exports, respectively, and India with a share of 11.77%. These countries spent $356.945 mln, $337.494 mln and $326.071 mln on the purchase of sunflower oil from Ukraine, respectively.
Exports of rapeseed oil decreased by 3.6 times in this period compared to January-June 2024, to 19.992 mln tonnes, while the revenue was 2.9 times lower and amounted to $58.015 mln.
At the same time, this year Ukraine increased exports of soybean oil by 52% in the first half of the year compared to 287.052 mln tonnes a year ago and doubled the revenue to $295.034 mln.
The main buyers of Ukrainian rapeseed oil were the Netherlands, which accounted for 39.29% of the exported volume, bringing Ukraine $7.750 million, Germany – 21.44% and $4.23 million, Slovakia – 13.13% and $2.591 million, respectively.
Among the most active buyers of Ukrainian soybean oil were Poland – 63.97% of exports worth $188.736 mln, India – 9.02% worth $26.616 mln, and Germany – 4.04% worth $11.925 mln.
In the reporting period, exports of other non-volatile fats and vegetable oils also increased by 1.9 times to 988 thsd tonnes, which is $2.409 mln in monetary terms compared to $2.124 mln a year ago.
At the same time, the import of palm oil to Ukraine in January-June 2025 increased by 2% compared to the first half of 2024 – up to 50.708 thsd tonnes. In monetary terms, the imports amounted to $71.651 mln (+15.2%). Ukraine purchased palm oil from Malaysia – 59.79% of imports of this product, worth $42.839 million, India – 35.7%, worth $25.581 million, and Sweden – 4.17%, worth $2.99 million.
Ukraine’s purchases of olive oil increased by 60.9% to 1.083 million tons, and the cost of purchasing it also increased by 3.5% to $8.277 million. Its main suppliers were Italy (42.55%), Spain (29.62%) and Greece (23.2%). They earned $3.522 million, $2.452 million, and $1.92 million from sales to Ukraine, respectively.
MHP Food and Agricultural Holding, Ukraine’s largest chicken producer, reduced sales of sunflower oil by 7% to 229.27 thousand tons in January-June 2024 compared to the same period last year.
“This is mainly due to a decrease in the production of sunflower cake,” the holding said in a report on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.
“In January-June 2024, MHP also reduced sales of soybean oil by 15%, to 23.82 thousand tons, compared to the same period last year, but they remained stable compared to the previous quarter.
Revenues of the vegetable oils segment in January-June 2024 decreased by 32% to $236 mln, which led to a decrease in adjusted EBITDA (excluding IFRS 16) to $27 mln compared to $48 mln in the same period last year, which the agricultural holding explains by the decline in world oil prices.
“MHP is the largest chicken producer in Ukraine. The company produces grain, sunflower oil, and meat processing products.
As reported, the company received $142 million in net profit in 2023 compared to $231 million in net loss a year earlier. The group’s revenue increased by 14% to $3.021 billion last year.
“In the second quarter of 2024, MHP earned $29 million in net profit, up 71% compared to the second quarter of 2023. Its EBITDA increased by 40% to $153 million, while revenue decreased by 5% to $770 million. The agroholding attributed the increase in profitability to improved performance in the crop sector.
Overall, net profit decreased by 33% to $45 million for the half-year, due to foreign exchange losses of $81 million against $5 million in the first half of 2023. EBITDA increased by 20% to $280 million on a 4% decrease in revenue to $1.489 billion, driven by crop production.
MHP’s founder, majority shareholder and Chairman of the Board is Ukrainian businessman Yuriy Kosyuk.
In the first quarter of 2023 compared to the first quarter of 2022, Ukraine increased exports of soybean oil by 36.6% – up to 78.091 thousand tons, in monetary terms rose by 1.6% – to $ 77.689 million.
Export of soybean oil in 2022 was 237.025 thousand tons, which is 1.7% less than in 202211.
In monetary terms, exports rose by 3.2% to $304.685 million.
