According to ProAgro Company data, in Russia annual per capita consumption of vegetable oil amounts in average to 14-15 kg, in Great Britain – 26 kg, in Germany, France and Italy – 28 kg, in the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden – about 22 kg. In its turn, in MY 2008/09 in Ukraine an average per capita consumption of vegetable oil amounted to only 15 kg. It should be mentioned that its increase is definitely expected.
In MY 2010/11, one Ukrainian will consume nearly 16 kg vegetable oils per year. Consumption will grow due to the growth of consumption of local oils – sunflower and soybean as well as tropical oils. The positive dynamics of development of the average per capita consumption are influenced first of all by the increased price for animal oils. There is also a trend toward the decrease of consumption of animal fats and a transition to vegetable oils as a result of more and more people choosing healthy nutrition principles.
According to ProAgro Company research “Ukraine: Oil-and-Fat Industry Portray”, the potential capacity of Ukrainian sunflower oil market is 500 – 600 thousand tons per year (consumption in MY 2008/09 – 417,000 t, and in MY 2007/08 – 396,000 t). The largest consumer of sunflower oil is the final consumer (accounts for about 2/3 of the market). Consequently, the main factor causing the increase of demand for this product is the demand of a retail consumer since the enterprises more and more often use tropical oils to replace sunflower oil, which is more expensive.
In order to satisfy the growing domestic demand, which is largely profitable, production facilities in the country are growing. As of the end of MY 2008/09, the Ukrainian companies are able to crush 8.4 million tons of oilseeds per year, including 7.6 million tons of sunflower seeds. Already in 2010 one expects the growth of facilities for crushing oilseeds to 10 million tons.
