Egypt significantly reduced sunflower oil imports in the first quarter of the 2024/25 marketing year, favoring soybean imports and domestic crushing. From September to November 2024, sunflower oil imports fell 3.3 times to 65.6 KMT, compared to 217.5 KMT in the same period last year.

The sharpest decline was in EU-origin sunflower oil, with no shipments recorded from the Netherlands or Bulgaria. Russian oil imports also dropped significantly from 88.1 KMT in 2023/24 MY to 39.6 KMT this season, while Ukrainian deliveries remained stable.

«The reason for such a drop in sunflower oil import and switch to import and processing of soybeans is a big reduction in demand as inflation and FX kill the Egyptian demand of grains and oils», noted Ahmed El Hawary, Head of Trade at ALMAGD Group, one of the biggest soybean crushers in Egypt, with daily processing capacities of 4500 MT of soybean per day.

Soybean imports surged, rising 63.5% y/y in the first quarter of the season to over 1 MMT. Imports from the U.S. alone jumped from 193 KMT to 741.5 KMT, reinforcing Egypt’s shift towards soybean crushing over refined oil imports.

More insights about fate of sunflower oil in the East Mediterranean region you can receive within the Globoil International 2025 conference, taking place on May 5-7, 2025, in Dubai. Christina Serebriakova, CEO of ASAP Agri & Broker at Atria Brokers, will be a speaker at the panel discussion and cover all sunoil trends. You can register here: https://www.globoilinternational.com/