As the brewing conflict between Ukraine and Russia escalates and the glooming cloud of war hangs over the region, Ukraine’s output and export of sunflower seed and oil hangs in the balance. Willowton Group, South Africa’s largest sunflower seed crusher and manufacturer of products including edible oils, margarines and spreads, held a webinar recently unpacking the direct impact and outcomes that this stand-off will have on our markets.
In addition to the war, the major reduction of the South American soya crop (caused by a heatwave and drought), together with the Indonesian government imposing restrictions on the exports of palm oils has led to vegetable oil markets exploding in the past few weeks.
Willowton Group, which owns brands including Sunfoil, Sunshine D and Crown, notes that Ukraine, South America and Indonesia are the world’s largest exporters of sunflower oil, soya oil and palm oils respectively.
In the webinar 'What's Putin a Strain on Oil Prices', Willowton Group was joined by guest speaker Thomas Mielke, a renowned vegetable oil expert and executive director of ISTA Mielke GmbH in Hamburg (Germany), Oil World, a research organisation that provides global supply, demand and price analyses, statistics and forecasts for all the major oilseeds, vegetable oils & animal fats and oil meals as well as for biodiesel and livestock products with clients in 100 countries.
Mielke is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops all over the world, and shared an update on the vegetable oil market and provided his price outlook.
Watch here:
