In particular, palm oil imports increased to 1.12 million tons (1.02 million tons in July 2023), of which 630,000 tons came from Indonesia, 300,000 tons from Malaysia, and 120,000 tons from Thailand.
Imports of sunflower oil increased by 14% to 367 thousand tons, with the largest volume supplied by Russia – 190 thousand tons, Argentina – 86 thousand tons and Ukraine – 43 thousand tons.
At the same time, imports of soybean oil decreased to 392 thousand tons vs. purchased in July 2023. 401 thousand tons, including from Argentina – 302 thousand tons, from Brazil – 87 thousand tons.
Recall, India extended the reduced duty on imports of all types of vegetable oils until March 2025.
Extensive damages
As the market is waiting for the new crop conditions are rather quiet in Bulgaria. The weather has disrupted expectations as excessive heat with temperatures ranging as high as 40C (104F) for months on end and a lack of rain have certainly impacted the quality and yields, EU Commission estimates have already been revised downwards. Fortunately, the situation has now improved a bit as rain has been recorded and temperatures range in the lower 30s (ca 86F). Damages have, however, occurred. Some farmers have even started harvesting early well knowing...
“With so much land available, we don’t have to go far. Even around BARMM, which is suitable for oil palms, we have identified around 800,000 hectares,” PPDCI president Erwin Anthony Garcia said during the culmination of the 13th Palm Oil Congress here Thursday.
Garcia said the Philippines relies heavily on palm oil demand from the neighboring nations of Indonesia and Malaysia, with our country importing 1.2 million metric tons (MT) of palm oil products last year.
“This trend underscores the urgency to wrap up our local production capacity and reduce our independence on external sources. This 1.2 million MT is equivalent to an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 hectares of plantation,” he said.
Garcia’s group aims to plant palm oil trees on 5,000 hectares of land this year and improve the country’s around 100,000 hectares of oil palm farms.
“Last year, we successfully planted an estimated 2,000 hectares of new planting in various areas of the country. This ambitious target underscores our commitment to rejuvenating our industry and addressing the challenges of aging oil palm trees,” he added.
In June-August, severe drought and excessive temperatures were in Romania. Crop conditions may gradually deteriorate; as soil drought of various intensity is now seen in almost all regions without irrigation. This reduces accumulations of dry matter and promotes small-diameter of sunflower heads with lower quality and yields.
Some farmers in the southern and eastern areas have already started sunseed harvesting.
Further development of the oilseed and vegoil sector in the Black Sea and Danube region will be discussed at the 10th International Conference BLACK SEA OIL TRADE on October 15th in Bucharest.
EU prices still shockingly high
Consumers in the EU are still confronted with the effects of the price hikes that were mainly prompted by shortfalls in production in Spain in the past two years. This is vividly illustrated in the evolving price charts for extra virgin oil in Spain, Italy and Greece issued by the European Commission's Directorate-General of Agriculture and Rural Delevelopment (DG AGRI). Although prices have passed their peak since January, when they ranged an extortionate 50% higher than last year, they are still highly elevated. Prices in Spain were still 28% higher than last year at the end of June, more than 30% higher in Italy and more than 35% higher in Greece.
Good news, however, is that prices finally started to dip in Spain in July. Issue is that the prospects for the 2024/2025 crop year, which starts in October, are highly encouraging as table olive yields set to return to normal levels of around 1.4 million mt as local media report. While Spanish extra virgin olive oil prices were still hovering at around EUR 8.00/kg (USD 8.81/kg) in June, they dropped to EUR 7.36/kg in July, which is coming close to the EUR 7.10/kg (USD 7.82/kg) observed in July 2023 as DG Agri illustrates. Encouraging as this development is, it should, however, be noted that prices still have a long way to go before reaching normal levels again. Quotations, in fact, still range more than 50% higher than the five-year moving average of EUR 3.65/kg (USD 4.02/kg). Consumers will, in other words, need to be very patient before any notable price declines reach the supermarket shelves and it is highly questionable in how far prices will return to normal given that retailers and all other players along the supply chain have reaped large profits in the past two years.
USDA experts increased the forecast of global rapeseed production in 2024/25 MR by 0.9 to 88.8 (88.75) million tons, primarily for the Russian Federation - by 0.8 to 5.1 million tons, but did not lower the harvest estimate for the EU and Ukraine, as analysts expected.
In Ukraine, on August 8, 99% of the area harvested 3.32 million tons of rapeseed, but the USDA left its forecast at 3.7 million tons, which will be 20% less than the 2023/24 FY. USDA left the forecast for rapeseed production in the EU at 18.9 (20) million tons, while the European Commission lowered the harvest estimate to 18.38 million tons, and the Strategie Grains agency - to 17.27 million tons (from 17.8 million tons in June ).
November rapeseed futures on the Paris exchange yesterday rose 0.9% to €457/t or $503/t (-3% for the month), partially recovering from a 2.6% drop after the report. The growth of the euro against the dollar to 1.101 limits the increase in prices in Paris and improves the prospects for increasing canola supplies from Canada
Suppliers could be happier in India
South Korea awarded India with 4,780 mt in last week's tender over 6,000 mt in position 1 and 4,000 mt in position 2. Pakistan gained second place with 3,420 mt and Tanzania third with 1,800 mt. However, the volume awarded to India in the tender is too low to boost the market by any notable degree.
Thus, freight rates for panamax transportation of corn and wheat from the deep-sea ports of Odessa to southern China and Bangladesh remained at the level of $50-52/t, and to southern Vietnam - at the level of $46-47/t.
At the same time, the freight rates of handysizes with corn from the deep-sea ports of Odessa to the eastern Mediterranean during the week decreased by $2/t to $18-20/t, to the east coast of Italy – by $2/t to $20-22/t, to Spain – by $1/t to $22-24/t, Tunisia – by $1/t to $23-25/t.