Kazakhstan has increased oilseed crops by 30% and is intensifying competition with sunflower oil exporters from Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the Chinese market

According to the National Statistics Bureau of Kazakhstan, in 2026, the area under oilseed crops in the country increased by 30% compared to the previous year to 5.179 million hectares due to the policy of diversifying sown areas and strengthening the role of oilseed crops in the structure of agricultural production.

The area under sunflower, the main oilseed crop in the country, increased the most – by almost 25% to a record 2.202 million hectares, which is 2.3 times higher than in 2021 due to a stable increase over the past 5 years.

In addition, local farmers have increased the area sown with other oilseed crops – rapeseed, flax, cotton, and safflower.

The National Association of Oilseed Processors explains this increase in area by the growth in demand for raw materials from their own processing enterprises, as well as by the increase in exports of oil and fat products, which were supplied to 23 countries around the world this season.

The available industrial capacities allow Kazakhstan to process over 5.2 million tons of oilseeds per year, of which 4.4 million tons are sunflower. Over the next two years, the country plans to implement large-scale investment projects to build new oil refineries with a total capacity of over 3 million tons of oilseeds per year.

The main buyers of Kazakh sunflower oil are Central Asian countries and China, where it competes with Ukrainian and Russian oil. And thanks to the suspension of supplies through the Black Sea ports, Kazakhstan can maximize the influence of Russian oil suppliers on the Chinese market.

During 2021-2026, Ukraine reduced its exports of sunflower oil to China from record figures and the status of one of the main suppliers to several percent in the overall import structure.

China used to be the second largest importer of Ukrainian sunflower oil after India, purchasing over 1 million tons of oil per year. Ukraine used to supply half of China’s sunflower oil imports, but in recent years it has sharply reduced its supplies in this direction.

https://graintrade.com.ua