Russia exported 683,000 tons of sunflower oil to India in the last fiscal year (from September 2022 to the end of August 2023 for oilseeds).
This is more than double the volume of exports in the previous fiscal year, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Russian-based Interfax news agency.
In addition, India increased its imports of soybean oil from Russia 3.5-fold to 131,000 tons during this period.
In total, Russia exported 6.05 million tons of vegetable oil in the past fiscal year, which is 33% more than it exported in the previous fiscal year. Exports of sunflower oil increased by 25% to a record 3.84 million tons.
It should be noted that India was traditionally the largest market for Ukrainian producers of sunflower oil before the Russian military invasion and the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s maritime exports.
For example, Ukraine exported 6.6 million tons of vegetable oil by sea in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. This included 5.3 million tons of sunflower oil, 33% of which (1.75 million tons) was shipped to India.
As reported earlier, Russia increased its share of global agricultural exports from 1.9% to 2.1% in 2022, rising from 18th to 17th place in the ranking. Its main export commodity was grain, from which it earned USD 13 billion in 2022.
Russia has admitted that the increase in its exports was facilitated by the reduction in agricultural exports from Ukraine because of Russia's blockade of Ukrainian seaports, which have also been subject to constant Russian attacks since the summer of 2023.
