Turkey, formerly the biggest buyer of Russian sunflower, reduced its imports in the current season to virtually zero. As follows from the data of the FCS for the first half of the season in this country was delivered only 232 tons of seeds — the only party to have been shipped in October. According to "APK-inform", this volume was the lowest over the last 10 years.

In the same period last season, Turkey is the main market in this country from September 2017 to February 2018 was set to 20.8 thousand tons of Russian sunflower. In second place was Belarus (15.9 thousand tons), the third — Iran (9.3 thousand tons). In the first half of this season of Belarus came in first place with 27.6 thousand tons in second place — Kazakhstan (23 kt), the third — Armenia (13.3 thousand tons).

Against the backdrop of falling procurement in Russia, Turkey increased its imports from other countries, said a leading expert of the Institute for agricultural market studies (IKAR) Daniel Khotko. "In the beginning of this season, Turkey had the opportunity to buy quite cheap a sunflower seed in Moldova and even, oddly enough, some of the volumes were brought from Argentina," said "the Agroinvestor" Khotko. He also noticed that in General, Turkey reduced the volume of import from-for increases of their own crops. So, if in October-February Turkey bought 206 thousand tons of sunflower, whereas in the same period a season earlier — 253 thousand tons.

In addition, this season Turkey has been actively purchasing sunflower in Ukraine. According to "APK-inform", September-February, Ukraine has sent to Turkey of approximately 36 thousand tons of oilseeds against 1.3 tons for the same period of the season 2017/18. Thus, Turkey for the first time since the 2012/13 became the absolute leader in the rating of countries-buyers of Ukrainian sunflower, analysts say. From September to March, the volume of supplies of Ukrainian seeds in Turkey amounted to almost 50 thousand tons, confirms Khotko. According to him, the main reason for the reorientation of Turkey is the price. "Also this season in the Russian South was the poor harvest of sunflower, with the result that it is sold with an extra added bonus," said Khotko.

In total, according to FTS, in the first half of the season Russia exported about 78.5 thousand tons of sunflower, which is 22% higher than 2017/18. Sunflower oil exports from September to February on the background of unfavorable global market conditions, declined 6% to 1.1 million tons, Turkey was among the buyers of sunflower oil is in second place (201 thousand tons), behind Iran (245 kt). Sunflower crop last year amounted to a record 12.7 million tonnes, which is 22% higher gross yield of 2017. As a result, the production of sunflower oil in Russia in the current season will reach a record 5.2 million tonnes, IKAR forecasts. According to Rosstat, by April 1, stocks of sunflower in the agricultural enterprises was 26% higher than last year and amounted to 1.1 million t. including in the Central Federal district remains increased in 1.6 times up to 390 thousand tons, in Volga — 21%, the South declined by 9% to 290 thousand tons.

Photo: Medvoice.ru