Ukraine’s Sunflower Oil: the Seeds Mostly Stay Home
Ukraine harvests more than 10 million tons of sunflower seeds a year, but only a small fraction is exported as raw seed — most is processed into oil and meal domestically before export. This article sets out the volumes of seed, oil, and exports from USDA estimates, Ukraine's share of world exports, and the export duty that has applied to seed since 1999.
Sunflowers, widely grown on Ukrainian farms, are mostly pressed into oil domestically before going abroad, rather than being sold as raw seed. This article looks at the volume and export of seed, oil, and meal using estimates from the September 2026 issue of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service’s monthly report, Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade. The second half covers the export duty that applies when seed leaves the country.
Year-by-year harvest and planted-area figures are set out in our article on the three main crops, and export ports and routes in our article on grain export routes.
Volumes of seed, meal, and oil
In USDA’s estimates, Ukraine’s sunflower marketing year runs from September to the following August. Against seed production of 13 million tons in 2024/25, only 68,000 tons were exported as raw seed — about 0.5% of production.
| Ukraine (thousand tons) | 2024/25 | 2025/26 (estimate) | 2026/27 (forecast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed production | 13,000 | 10,700 | 13,000 |
| Seed exports | 68 | 40 | 100 |
| Oil production | 5,290 | 4,515 | 5,418 |
| Oil exports | 4,744 | 4,036 | 5,000 |
| Meal production | 5,080 | 4,337 | 5,204 |
| Meal exports | 3,418 | 2,861 | 3,300 |
Pressing the seed yields oil and a residue used as animal feed (sunflower meal). Oil production of 5,290 thousand tons in 2024/25 amounts to about 40% of seed production (calculated from the table’s figures). About 90% of oil production (4,744 thousand tons) goes to export.
About 30% of world exports
Ukraine is sometimes said to be the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil. Lining up sunflower oil exports from the same USDA table gives the following.
| Sunflower oil exports (thousand tons) | 2024/25 | 2025/26 (estimate) | 2026/27 (forecast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ukraine | 4,744 | 4,036 | 5,000 |
| Russia | 4,200 | 4,200 | 5,100 |
| World total | 13,662 | 13,510 | 15,968 |
| Ukraine’s share | about 34.7% | about 29.9% | about 31.3% |
Ukraine exceeds Russia in 2024/25, but in the 2025/26 estimate — a year with a smaller harvest — and the 2026/27 forecast, Russia is slightly ahead. Whether Ukraine is “the world’s largest” therefore depends on the marketing year and when the estimate was made, and it is not always true. This table does not show the scope of USDA’s estimate for Russia’s figures, including how it treats Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation.
An export duty on seed since 1999
Law No. 1033-XIV of September 10, 1999, “On Export Duty Rates on the Seed of Certain Oilseed Crops,” imposes a duty on the export of sunflower seed. Its current text sets the duty rate on sunflower, flax, and camelina seed at 16% of the customs value, falling by one percentage point a year from January 1, 2007 until it reaches 10%. Falling one point a year from 16% works out to reaching 10% in 2013.
The text of the law does not state its purpose, but the duty makes it more advantageous to press the seed domestically and sell it as oil and meal than to sell it abroad as raw seed. The table above also shows that raw-seed exports remain a small fraction of production.
Exports to the European Union (EU) are treated differently. Annex I-C to the Ukraine–EU Association Agreement sets out a schedule for reducing the export duty, and according to an explanation by the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR), the duty rate on sunflower seed exported to the EU was 0.9% in 2022. Overall EU trade is covered in our article on EU tariffs.
In 2025, 10% extended to soybeans and rapeseed
Law No. 4536-IX of July 16, 2025 added Article 1-1 to the same law, imposing a 10% duty on the export of soybean and rapeseed seed as well. It provides that this does not apply to soybeans before September 1, 2025. Agricultural producers exporting soybeans or rapeseed they grew themselves, and agricultural cooperatives exporting produce grown by their members, are exempted from this duty. No such exemption applies to sunflower seed.
Sources and article record
Sources and references
- Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade, September 2026Table 13, Sunflowerseed and Products: World Supply and Distribution; production and exports for Ukraine, Russia, and the world, by marketing year
Published by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Закон України «Про ставки вивізного (експортного) мита на насіння деяких видів олійних культур»No. 1033-XIV of September 10, 1999; the 16% rate in Article 1 and the reduction from 2007, Article 1-1, version of September 4, 2025
Published by Верховна Рада України (legal database) · Checked: 2026-09-24 - Інформація щодо ставок мита на експорт насіння соняшника до країн ЄСAnnex I-C to the Association Agreement; the 2022 EU duty rate of 0.9%
Published by All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council (VAR) · Checked: 2026-09-24
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