Lecithin Market is segmented by Product (Soy Lecithin, Sunflower Lecithin, Rapeseed Lecithin, Egg Yolk Lecithin, Marine Lecithin, Specialty Lecithin), Application (Food and Beverage, Animal Feed, Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care and Cosmetics, Industrial Applications), End Use (Food Manufacturers, Animal Feed Industry, Pharmaceutical Companies, Cosmetic Manufacturers, Industrial Manufacturers), and Region, with forecasts covering the period from 2026 to 2036.
According to Fact.MR estimates, the global lecithin market market was valued at USD 0.7 billion in 2025. The market is projected to reach USD 0.8 billion in 2026 and is expected to grow to USD 1.8 billion by 2036, expanding at a CAGR of 9.0%. Soy Lecithin is anticipated to account for 42.8% of the product segment in 2026, while Food and Beverage is expected to remain the leading application with around 38.5% share.
Today, Member States endorsed the Commission's proposal to suspend the use of inward processing in case raw cane sugar is imported and refined into white sugar. This suspension will provide relief for the EU sugar market and help restore market balance, by taking away the pressure that is perceived by duty-free imports under the so-called inward processing. At the same time, farmers have already made an effort to reduce the sugar beet acreage in the EU to adjust to the market situation. In turn, this will help EU sugar producers and ensure fair competition, so that sugar beet cultivation remains viable in the EU. The proposal follows Commissioner Hansen’s announcement on 26 January of a temporary suspension of the sugar inward processing regime, an EU customs mechanism.
The measure adopted today will not affect inward processing imports of white sugar. Operators across downstream industries using white sugar as a raw material to manufacture products for export can continue to rely on these imports without disruption. Similarly, the imports of raw sugar that is processed without refining are excluded. This targeted approach addresses the identified market concerns while ensuring continuity for other operators and trade flows.
The suspension will be limited to one year and will cover both new and existing authorisations or rights for the use of inward processing. During this time, operators that previously used inward processing for the import of raw cane sugar for refining into white sugar will have access to raw cane sugar from origins benefiting from preferential access to the Union market.
The Commission will assess the effect of the suspension within the first six months after its entry into force. During the suspension period, the Commission will also assess options to improve the functioning of inward processing in the sugar sector. The suspension of inward processing addresses a market disturbance in the short term. The Commission is also assessing whether further action may be warranted. In this context, the Commission will conduct a “health check” of key markets, including sugar, which will inform these reflections.
Since the beginning of 2026, Argentina has been actively increasing its exports of sunflower seeds, as well as sunflower oil and meal, according to Oil World (Germany). Argentina’s sunflower oil exports have increased by 55% since the start of the season, reaching 963,000 tons, including to India and Egypt, while sunflower meal exports have increased by 72% to a record 1.06 million tons.
Overall, since the beginning of the 2025/26 marketing year, Argentina has increased sunflower seed exports to 846,000 tons, compared to 35,000 tons in September-March of the 2024/25 marketing year:
- European Union – 580,000 tons
- Turkey – 162,000 tons
- South Africa – 67,000 tons
Analysts note that most of Argentina’s export potential will be realized by June, as the country will attempt to ship products to importing countries before the 2026 harvest begins in the Northern Hemisphere. Argentina is expected to export 1.1 million tons in the 2025/26 season, including 1.92 million tons of sunflower oil and 1.96 million tons of sunflower meal. Total sunflower exports could reach almost 5 million tons, compared to 2.9 million tons a year earlier and 2.4 million tons two years ago.
Despite the new rise in oil prices, vegetable oil quotes remained fairly stable last week, and in the Indian market, sunflower oil prices even decreased amid increased supply from Argentina.
During the week, prices for sunflower oil delivered to India fell by another $10/t to $1,410-1,415/t CIF Mumbai, which reduced prices for Russian sunflower oil by $10/t to $1,315-1,320/t FOB, however, demand prices for Ukrainian sunflower oil during this time increased by another $5-10/t to $1,320-1,325/t delivered to Black Sea ports against the backdrop of a supply shortage. Over the weekend, another port-side oil extraction plant was damaged by drone strikes, and oil tanks were damaged in Chornomorsk.
Declining processing margins and new oil losses have led to reduced purchasing activity by some processors and a drop in purchasing prices.
At the end of last week, sunflower seed demand prices in Ukraine reached a record 33,000 UAH/t (for 50% oil content), but since Monday they have decreased by 300-500 UAH/t to 31,800-32,500 UAH/t or $635-650/t excluding VAT with delivery to the factory, remaining almost unchanged for a week.
The State Statistics Service of Ukraine provided a final report on the 2025 harvest, according to which sunflower production amounted to 10.24 million tons, which is 7% less than in the previous season. At the same time, as of April 1, 2026, sunflower stocks in Ukraine amounted to 2.6 million tons, which is 10% less than a year ago.
In May 2026, the export duty on sunflower oil from the Russian Federation will decrease by 3.5 times compared to April, from 16,222 to 4,650 rubles/t, which is equivalent to a decrease of $150/t. This will allow Russian exporters to earn higher profits and slightly lower prices, which will increase competition with Ukrainian and Argentine oil on the world market.
The lack of progress in negotiations between the US and Iran continues to push oil prices higher, so we expect a new increase in vegetable oil prices next week.
According to the European Commission, from July 1, 2025 to April 24, 2026, EU countries reduced the import of oilseeds and their processing products by 10% to 36.572 million tons compared to the corresponding period of the previous season, agronews.ua reports.
Thus, compared to the previous season, the import decreased as follows:
– oilseeds – by 15% to 15.421 million tons,
– meal – by 7% to 16.747 million tons,
– oils – by 8% to 4.405 million tons.
In terms of production, the import decreased for:
– soybeans – by 10% to 10.541 million tons,
– rapeseed – by 29% to 4.121 million tons,
– soybean meal – by 7% to 14.552 million tons,
– sunflower meal – by 25% to 1.517 million tons,
– sunflower oil – by 23% to 1.582 million tons,
– palm oil – by 5% to 2.343 million tons.
At the same time, the import of the following products increased:
– sunflower by 46% to 758.314 thousand tons,
– soybean oil – by 57% to 614.047 thousand tons,
– rapeseed oil – by 94% to 479.306 thousand tons,
– rapeseed meal – by 142% to 679.19 thousand tons.
In 2025/26 MY, the main suppliers of soybeans to the EU were the USA (4.3 million tons) and Brazil (4.2 million tons). Rapeseed was supplied by Ukraine (1.4 million tons) and Australia (1.3 million tons), while sunflower came from Moldova (0.3 million tons) and Argentina (0.3 million tons).
Additionally, Ukraine exported to the EU 1.5 million tons of sunflower oil, 0.4 million tons of soybean oil, and 0.3 million tons of rapeseed oil.
Corn is the primary grain crop in the U.S., and soybeans are the primary oilseed crop. Corn and soybeans have become foundational crops in modern agriculture. Over time, a growing share of U.S. acreage has been planted to corn and soybeans, particularly compared with other grains such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye. Corn yields have increased more than any other major crops grown in the U.S., increasing its competitiveness with the other major grains.
The USDA provides baseline projections over the next 10 years for eight major row crops. The Farmdoc Daily article from April 14, 2026 shows historical acreage from the 1930s to the present. In this article, we focus on acreage changes from 1995–1997 to 2024–2026. The 1995–1997 period coincides with the passage of the 1996 farm bill, often referred to as “Freedom to Farm,” which eliminated most acreage constraints from previous farm bills. As a result, market forces have largely influenced acreage changes since the mid-1990s. A summary of acreage changes from 1995–1997 to 2024–2026 is:
- Corn acres increased from 77 million in 1995–1997 to 95 million acres in 2024–2026, an increase of 24%.
- Soybean acres increased from 66 million to 84 million, an increase of 29%.
- Wheat acres decreased from 71 million to 45 million, a decrease of 37%.
- Barley acres decreased from 7 million to 2 million, a decrease of 65%.
- Cotton acres decreased from 15 million acres to 10 million, a decrease of 34%.
- Oat acres decreased from 5 million to 2 million, a decrease of 56%.
- Peanut acres increased from 1.4 to 1.8 million, an increase of 24%.
- Rice acres decreased from 3.0 million to 2.7 million, a decrease of 11%.
- Sorghum acres decreased from 11 million to 6 million, a decrease of 41%.
Of those major crops, only three had increases in acres: corn (24%), soybeans (29%), and peanuts (24%). Of those three crops, corn and soybeans are much larger, respectively at 95 million and 84 million acres, compared with 1.8 million for peanuts.
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) has published its position on the European Union (EU)’s post-2030 Energy and Climate framework and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).
As the EU looks toward its global decarbonisation target of achieving net climate neutrality by 2050, with interim targets for 2030 and 2040, the EBB has called for a robust RED that prioritises stability, simplifies market entry for renewable fuels and removes regulatory bottlenecks.
In its paper published on 16 April, the EBB gave its backing to a framework that continued the current trend of progressively increasing decarbonisation targets.
The EBB said some general statistics clearly showed the challenges of decarbonising transport, and the need for ambitious transport-specific
targets and measures: EU transport remained responsible for 26% of total greenhouse gas emissions; the share of renewable energy in EU transport reached only 11.2% in 2024, 17.8% lower than the 29% target for 2030; and the EU remained import dependent for fossil fuels.
Supply shocks and fluctuating prices driven by the global geopolitical environment also made greater energy independence even more critical for the EU, the EBB said.
The association, which represents biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producers in the EU, said it remained fully committed to the set climate targets, adding that the EU should keep up its ambitious plans.
“While the Effort Sharing Regulation and ETS I and ETS II are vital, they do not currently provide a price signal strong enough to drive the necessary volumes of renewable fuels,” said Domenico Mininni, policy director at EBB.
“General market mechanisms must remain complementary to specific, ad-hoc transport targets within the post-2030 RED to ensure investment security and clear deployment pathways.”
To unlock the full potential of biofuels, the EBB identified three areas that required immediate legislative attention in the post-2030 era: effective fraud prevention in sustainability certification; strategic reassessment of feedstock eligibility and the removal of obstacles holding back high-blend biofuels.
“The 2040 framework should … set the RED as the regulatory reference for feedstock eligibility matters in all pieces of legislation governing the production and use of biofuels,” Mininni added.
The EBB represents producers using all biodiesel feedstocks: food/feed crops, waste, residues and other biogenic materials.
The area of the oil slick in the Black Sea after the shelling of the Chornomorsk port in the Odesa region has increased by more than 400 times. This was reported by the Deputy Director for Science of the Ukrainian Scientific Center for Marine Ecology (UkrSCME) Viktor Komorin.
According to him, the pollution changes the physicochemical properties of the seawater and has a negative impact on marine organisms.
“Currently, the oil slick covers an area of 35.7 sq km,” Komorin said.
The spill of sunflower oil alters the physicochemical properties of seawater. Despite not being toxic, it negatively affects the biota. The “Administration of Ukrainian Seaports” reported that specialized vessels of the Black Sea branch of the State Enterprise are currently involved in the localization and elimination of the pollution.