Ministry: Russia becomes second-biggest sunflower oil exporter

MOSCOW, Mar 21 (PRIME) -- Russia has become the world’s second-biggest sunflower oil exporter thanks to a higher output of the product on the domestic market, Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Levin said on Tuesday.

“Vegetable oils and the oil and fat industry in general have gained a second-biggest share of Russia’s agricultural exports. Today we hold the second position in the world in terms of sunflower oil exports and the seventh position in soya oil exports,” Levin said.

Russia’s oil and fat output rose by over 130% to 5.1 million tonnes in 2013–2016, including a 25% increase in sunflower oil output, a 100% rise in soya oil output and a 50% increase in oilcake production.

“It resulted in a significant rise of vegetable oil exports to 2.1 million tonnes in 2016,” he said.

Russia’s oil and fat productive facilities’ capacity increased to 14.5 million tonnes in 2016 from 10.6 million tonnes in 2013, but they are loaded only 60%, Levin also said.

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