During 2023-2024, Kazakhstan plans to increase sunflower oil refining capacity by 106 thsd tonnes (by 40 thsd tonnes in 2023 and by another 66 thsd tonnes in 2024), announced Yadykar Ibragimov, the Chairman of the Board of the National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA), at the international conference "Eurasian Agricom" in Astana on March 15.
He also said that as of the end of 2022, the total capacity of Kazakh oil refining enterprises amounted to 323 thsd tonnes per year.
“Due to the introduction of new capacities by the beginning of 2025, the total capacity for refining sunflower oil in Kazakhstan will amount to 429 thsd tonnes,” Y. Ibragimov noted.
According to NOPA forecast, in the current season, Kazakhstan will produce 170 thsd tonnes of refined sunflower oil, which is up 23% compared to 2021/22 MY (139.59 thsd tonnes).
Also, Yadykar Ibragimov spoke about the current situation in the oil and fat market, where there is a downward price tendency on the vegetable oils observed.
“Today, we can see that prices for vegetable oils decline all over the world. And, Central Asia is no exception in this matter, since the main supplier of oil and fat products to the Central Asian countries is Russia, whose prices are directly correlated with global prices. In this regard, there is a decrease in the bid prices for sunflower seeds both in the Russian Federation and in Kazakhstan. Also, the reasons for the collapse in prices include both the change in the exchange rate of the national currency against the US dollar and the halting of oilseed sales in previous months in both countries, although prices were significantly higher than the current ones, which ultimately led to a sharp increase in the supply of sunflower seeds ahead of spring fieldwork.”
