Bunge Sees Sharp Drop in Black Sea Vegoils Exports

Vegetable oil exports out of the Black Sea should fall significantly this year mainly due to a weather-hit sunflower seed crop, but they will remain the second largest on record, international trading house Bunge said on Tuesday.

In a presentation at the Oilseeds and Oils Conference in Barcelona, Oleg Sukhanov, market research manager for Bunge CIS, forecast that total oil exports from sunflower, soybean and rapeseed would reach 6.2 million tonnes in 2014/15, down from 6.9 million in 2013/14.

Of this, Ukraine would export 4.2 million tonnes, down from 4.4 million last season, and Russia 2.0 million tonnes, down from 2.5 million in 2013/14, he said.

The fall was mainly attributed to sunflower oil exports. The region's sunflower seed crop, mainly Russia's, was slashed by adverse weather this year.

"Exports are a bit lower than last year but it could be the second highest result, mainly because we have a lot of new crushing capacity," Sukhanov told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

"We also had a rise in imports of palm oil due to the drop in prices so this will allow more exports of sunseed oil."

Sunseed oil, also called sunflower oil, accounts for between 70 and 80 percent of Russia's total vegetable oil exports. Its main export markets include Turkey, whose share of Russian exports rose from 20 percent to 37 percent over the five past seasons, and Egypt which took nearly a quarter of Russian exports, Sukhanov said.

Sukhanov said he expected a limited further increase in sunseed oil prices in the region.

"I don't think it will be record prices because the crop is not critical, just low. We have a lot of other oilseeds and global prices are going down, which should cap our prices," he said.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Gus Trompiz and Andrew Callus)