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6.1 Why the Ukraine war has such a big impact on the market
» 6.1.2 A lot of Ukrainian sunflower oil in the EU
In light of the initial absence of shipments from the Black Sea region, the implications of the war in Eastern Europe for supply within the EU-27 quickly became evident. Ukraine is the largest supplier of sunflower oil to the EU. Imports in the marketing year 2020/21 totalled around 1.7 million tonnes, of which 1.5 million tonnes, around 88 per cent, came from Ukraine. Based on an estimated EU consumption of 4.5 million tonnes of sunflower oil, Ukrainian imports, in purely arithmetic terms, accounted for 33 per cent. In Germany, there was a phase of “panic buying“ by consumers of vegetable oil. Although vegetable oil was never in short supply. The supply chains are geared to cover the usual volumes of demand. If consumers buy three bottles instead of one or two, shelves will naturally be quickly emptied. As an alternative, consumers could always have bought rapeseed oil instead of sunflower oil. The discussion on the importance of Ukraine in supplying the markets related particularly to wheat supplies to African countries. These issues and the associated price increases are solely a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In order to avoid supply bottlenecks and ensure emergency supplies, options for putting suitable storage facilities in place for wheat – similar to mineral oil products and natural gas – should be examined.
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