KYIV, March 23 (Reuters) - Ukrainian vegetable oilrefineries have processed 7.3 million tonnes of sunflower seedin the first half of the 2020/21 season or almost 57% of thevolume available for crushing from the 2020 harvest, theUkrainian vegetable oil association said on Tuesday.
Ukraine is the world largest sunoil exporter which supplied6.63 million tonnes of sunoil to foreign markets in the 2019/20season which runs from September to August.
Ukraine harvested 13.1 million tonnes of sunseed in 2020 andcould process 12.9 million tonnes, the association predicted.
The economy ministry forecast that farmers would harvest13.5 million tonnes of sunflower seed this year.
APK-Inform agriculture consultancy said this week Ukrainiansunflower oil asking export prices had risen by up to $115 atonne, reaching $1,700-$1,175 fob Black Sea for March-Aprildelivery owing to an increase in sunflower seed prices.
Ukraine produced 7 million tonnes of sunoil in the 2019/20season.
The association said this month Ukraine had exported $4.4billion worth of vegetable oils in the first half of the 2020/21season, accounting for 40% of all Ukrainian agriculturalexports. Sunoil accounted for 77.73% of the vegetable oil sales.
Last season, Ukraine exported sunoil mostly to India, China,Netherlands, Iraq and Spain which together amounted to 77.6% ofthe total exports.(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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