In the 2025/26 marketing year, Ukraine lost its status as the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil, which it had held since the 2005/06 season. russia ended this 20-year leadership.
This is evidenced by data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), UNIAN reports.
Sunflower oil exports from russia in 2025/26 amounted to 4.2 million tonnes, while Ukraine ended the season with 4.036 million tonnes. A year earlier, Ukraine exported 4.744 million tonnes of the product, compared with russia’s 4.2 million tonnes.
Sunflower oil production in russia amounts to 6.897 million tonnes, compared with 4.515 million tonnes in Ukraine.
For the 2026/27 marketing season, USDA forecasts an increase in oil production to 7.806 million tonnes in russia and 5.418 million tonnes in Ukraine. Higher export figures are also expected — 5.1 million tonnes and 5 million tonnes for Ukraine, respectively.
The government is preparing to enforce stricter rules on the production, packaging and distribution of edible oils in Nepal, with a focus on quality, purity and consumer health. The Department of Food Technology and Quality Control under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has prepared the final draft of new quality standards for mustard, soybean and sunflower oils.
The new standards clearly classify edible oils into those suitable for direct consumption and those that are not. They also prohibit misleading advertisements and the reuse of previously used containers.
The department’s technical committee has prepared specifications for mustard oil under Nepal Standard 03:2035 (Second Amendment: 2083). Under the standard, mustard oil is divided into two categories based on the production process: express and solvent-extracted. All oils extracted through the express process — refined, virgin and expeller — as well as refined oil produced through the solvent process, will be considered suitable for direct human consumption.
However, Grade 1 oil produced through the solvent process cannot be consumed directly and must undergo further processing before use. Such oil cannot be sold in consumer packets. Its container must carry the words “Not for direct edible consumption” in English in letters at least 50 millimetres high. In terms of purity, the oil must not contain the harmful weed Argemone mexicana or any other inedible oil. The maximum peroxide value has been set at 10 milliequivalents. Strict limits have also been set for toxic metals, with lead and arsenic capped at 0.1 milligrams per kilogram, cadmium at 1 milligram per kilogram and mercury at 0.25 milligrams per kilogram.
The department has prepared new standards for soybean oil under Nepal Standard 103:2042 (First Amendment: 2083). Under the new provision, soybean oil extracted through the solvent extraction process will be classified as refined, degummed and...
Global vegetable oil exports – including oilseeds exported on a vegetable oil equivalent – are expected to reach a record 141M tonnes in 2026/27, up 2% from 2025/26 and driven by growth of rapeseed and sunflower oil and seed shipments, according to a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on the sector.
Around 60% of vegetable oil consumed globally is imported, either as vegetable oil or as an oilseed that is crushed in the importing country, the USDA’s September ‘Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade’ said.
The traded proportion of consumption was expected to total 59% in 2026/27, down from a 62% average over the last decade.
“This ratio continues to fall, largely driven by increased domestic palm oil usage in producing countries,” the USDA said.
“This pushed the traded proportion of palm oil consumption from nearly 75% in 2017/18 to under 60% in recent years.”
Together, palm and soyabean oils comprise almost two-thirds of vegetable oil consumed globally.
Palm oil – the top consumed oil – has seen a declining share in recent years as production growth has been outpaced by soyabean oil, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) report.
However, both were expected to be minor contributors to growth of global vegetable oil and equivalent exports in 2026/27.
Global palm oil production was expected to be down slightly from the record set in 2025/26, while exports were nearly 6.3M tonnes below their peak in 2018/19.
“Sizable growth in Indonesia industrial usage driven by biofuel policy expansion is the primary limiting factor for exportable supplies, and global palm oil exports are expected to decline by 2%,” the USDA said.
Total soyabean oil and equivalent exports were also expected to increase by only 1% in 2026/27 due to higher industrial usage in the USA and Brazil despite strong soyabean production growth.
Rapeseed and sunflowerseed oil comprised around one-quarter of global vegetable oil consumption.
The third most consumed oil, rapeseed oil had maintained its share of global consumption in recent years, driven by production growth in Canada and Russia.
Sunflowerseed oil was expected to recover its share of consumption on strong area growth in 2026/27 following two years of below-average Black Sea yields that had led to reduced crops.
“Growth in exports of vegetable oils and equivalents is expected to come from rapeseed and sunflowerseed oil in 2026/27,” the USDA said.
Rapeseed oil and equivalent exports were forecast to rise by 8% due to strong export growth expected from Canada, Russia, Ukraine and Australia, while the USA and China were expected to see the largest growth in rapeseed oil and equivalent imports.
Sunflowerseed oil and equivalent exports were forecast to rise by 15% driven by robust export growth for Ukraine and Russia due to larger crops, with India and China expected to be the highest growth importers.
In the first 15 days of September, Ukraine exported 131 thsd tons of sunflower oil, 38% below the usual 212 thsd tons for this period. This means that current shipments are running at around 60% of the typical pace.
This was reported by Ukraine’s Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotskyi. According to him, the main factor behind the decline in exports remains logistics difficulties and the limited ability to quickly replace the Greater Odesa ports with alternative routes.
In the first half of September, around 60 thsd tons of sunflower oil were shipped by sea. Another 50 thsd tons were transported by rail, while approximately 20 thsd tons were delivered by road.
Thus, alternative overland routes accounted for more than half of current sunflower oil shipments, but they are still unable to fully offset the decline in seaborne exports. This is limiting the overall pace of shipments of one of Ukraine’s key agricultural export commodities.
Further sunflower oil export dynamics will depend on the availability of maritime logistics and the capacity of rail and road routes. If the current constraints persist, the gap from typical shipment volumes may remain significant.
US agribusiness co-operative CHS has announced plans to build a new soyabean crushing facility in Evansville, Wisconsin, USA.
The new 80M bushels/year facility would expand market access to meet growing demand for soyabean oil and meal, the company said on 14 September.
Expected to produce around 453,592 tonnes (pounds)/year of soyabean oil and 2M tonnes/year of soyabean meal, CHS said the facility would supply growing domestic markets for food, animal feed and biofuel feedstocks.
Construction was scheduled to begin in the weeks after CHS’s announcement, with completion targeted in the latter half of 2028.
“Investments like this help CHS create additional value for our owners and customers by expanding market access, strengthening our processing network and creating new demand opportunities for US-grown soyabeans,” said John Griffith, executive vice president of agriculture business and CHS Hedging.
“Strong demand across food, feed and renewable fuel markets, coupled with policies that encourage domestic processing, manufacturing and energy production, reinforce the need for additional soyabean processing capacity in the USA.”
The facility would increase soyabean processing capacity in southern Wisconsin, a region with strong soyabean production and significant demand for soyabean meal from livestock producers, the company added.
The new facility would complement the company’s existing oilseed processing operations in Minnesota. In Hallock, CHS processes 525,000 tonnes/year of canola, and in Fairmont and Mankato, Minnesota, it processes approximately 119M bushels/year of soyabeans.
Once the Evansville facility was operational, the company’s soyabean processing capacity would increase by more than two-thirds, CHS said.
As the largest farmer-owned cooperative in the USA, CHS has customers in 65 countries.
In 2025, its agronomy, grains, foods and energy businesses recorded revenues of US$35.5bn.
BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Reuters) - China’s state stockpiler, Sinograin, has resumed large-scale auctions of imported soybeans after a pause of roughly a month, ahead of an expected summit of US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington next week.
The auction, set for 1:30 p.m. CST (0530 GMT) next Tuesday, will include 543,000 metric tons of soybeans produced between 2023 and 2025, the National Grain Trade Centre said in a notice.
Before the announcement, Sinograin held five auctions of more than 200,000 tons of imported soybeans since July, a move traders say aimed to free up storage capacity for anticipated U.S. soybean arrivals.
China has now crossed the halfway point toward its commitment, agreed with Washington last October, to buy 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans.
Beijing still has a 10% additional tariff on all U.S. goods, including agricultural products, after a tit-for-tat tariff war last year.
Traders hope the leaders’ summit next week will provide greater clarity on China’s future demand for U.S. soybeans.
A reduction in the soybean tariff could bring private Chinese crushers back to the U.S. market, from which they have largely been shut out by the duties.
India, the world's biggest vegetable oils importer, is considering lowering import taxes on the commodities to try to curb food inflation, two government and two industry sources said on Wednesday, as the peak demand festival season gets under way.
Prices of vegetable oils in India have climbed by nearly 20% over the last year and a measure that would lower their prices is likely to increase consumption as households mark festivals from September to November with sweets, snacks and fried treats.
Internationally, increased Indian demand would support benchmark Malaysian palm oil and U.S. soyoil futures, analysts say.
India meets nearly two-thirds of its vegetable oil demand through imports, mainly palm oil, soyoil and sunflower oil from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina, Russia and Ukraine.
Prices have risen because of disruption linked to Russia's war on Ukraine and extreme weather linked to El Nino and global warming.
One of the government sources said the government was seeking to shield consumers, while protecting farmers' interests.
A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
India's annual retail inflation accelerated further in August, driven by higher food prices.
Instead of making a deep cut in import duties, the government could lower the basic import duty by 5%, which would keep local soybean prices above government-set support levels and support oilseed farmers, a senior industry official said.
Noting the risk that prices in exporting countries could rise as a consequence of India reducing import duties and spurring domestic demand, the industry official said cutting import duties was not an effective way to manage prices.
In May 2025, India halved the basic import tax on crude edible oils to 10%. That effectively lowered the total import duty on crude palm oil, crude soyoil and crude sunflower oil to 16.5%, as those oils are also subject to the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess and Social Welfare Surcharge.
After the duty reduction, global palm oil and soyoil prices moved higher.
A century ago, Americans barely ate soy. Now it’s everywhere in people’s diets, even in places they don’t look or expect.
U.S. farmers will produce a record-breaking harvest of 4.52 billion bushels of soybeans in 2026, according to projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At 60 pounds to the bushel, that is roughly 800 pounds of soybeans for every American.
Most people don’t think of themselves as soybean consumers. Few sit down to a plate of soybeans, but soy is hiding in plain sight throughout the American diet. Soybean oil appears in salad dressings, mayonnaise, baked goods, infant formula, snacks and fried foods; soy lecithin emulsifies chocolate and bread; and soy protein fortifies energy bars, breakfast cereals and canned soup.
As an environmental historian who studies agriculture and food, I seek to understand a peculiar transformation: How did a plant that most Americans barely ate a century ago become a ubiquitous food ingredient without people noticing?
Chinese farmers domesticated the soybean (Glycine max) from its wild ancestor, Glycine soja, between 6,000 and 9,000 years ago. By the first millennium B.C.E., it ranked among the “five grains,” the staple crops recognized in early Chinese texts.
Soybeans came to North America much later. In 1764, an English sailor named Samuel Bowen arrived in Savannah, Georgia, with a handful of soybeans, a souvenir from several years spent in China. The following spring, Georgia’s surveyor-general Henry Yonge planted Bowen’s unfamiliar “Chinese vetches” and harvested three crops in a single season. In 1767, Bowen received a British patent for his method of producing soy sauce, a fermented condiment resembling the soy sauce already imported from Asia. The enterprise faded into obscurity after Bowen’s death, and soybeans remained little more than a curiosity in North America.
That changed around 1900. U.S. Department of Agriculture plant explorer Frank Meyer collected dozens of soybean varieties in China, many of which government researchers Charles Piper and William Morse planted at the department’s Arlington Experimental Farm in Virginia. They compared imported varieties for such traits as maturity, yield, plant form and suitability for...