Turkey risks vegoil shortage, relaxes agri imports

Turkey has relaxed import requirements for agricultural shipments from Ukraine — the country's vegetable oil stocks could be depleted by mid-April, given Russia's invasion of Ukraine and disrupted Black Sea shipments.

Turkey's vegetable oil market has been exposed to a greater risk of shortage than the rest of the agricultural complex, with sunflower seed and oil imports primarily coming from Ukraine and Russia. Domestic oil stocks could run out by late March or mid-April, vegetable oils and fats association BYSD said.

Turkey was due to receive 15-16 oil and oilseed vessels from Ukraine and Russia that are currently unable to leave port. Most are sunflower cargoes that were scheduled to be shipped from the Azov Sea, which is being blockaded by Russia, according to BYSD.

Turkey's sunflower oil receipts totalled 556,500t in July 2021-January 2022, up from 348,000t a year earlier. Some 97pc of imports were supplied by Russia and Ukraine. The country's imports in 2021-22 (July-June) totalled 870,000t, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has removed phytosanitary certificate and licence requirements for grain and oilseed imports from Ukraine to ensure food supply security.

Ukraine and Russia are also Turkey's main grain suppliers, with the bulk of wheat, corn and barley imports coming from the two.

By Bilal Muftuoglu