Ukraine: abnormal increase in sunflower prices, decrease in wheat prices
Prices for sunflower in April 2026 on the Ukrainian market rose sharply, which is atypical for this period of the season, according to News IO.
Processing enterprises of the country offer for this raw material on average 30 thousand hryvnia / t. At the same time, in the central regions of Ukraine, the price is approaching the mark of 32 thousand hryvnia / t ($545 / t), while in the ports of Odessa region price on average is kept at $ 500 / t.
Experts note that the sharp jump in sunflower purchase prices is due to several major factors. Firstly, there is a shortage of supply of quality raw materials on the market. Secondly, logistical difficulties have an impact, as well as (at the moment – this is the main factor) the growth of demand from processing companies. They seek to meet their production needs before the new season, the starting conditions and parameters of which are not yet clear.
Prices for food wheat in the ports of Greater Odessa are characterized by a decrease in purchase prices, apk-inform writes.
As of the last working day of this week, the most frequently specified in the offers “demand prices” for wheat of 2 class are $215-225/t (delivery basis – CPT-port). This is $1-3/t lower than at the end of the previous week. During the same period, purchase prices for grade 3 wheat decreased by $1-2/t, to $215-223/t (SRT-port).
According to the expert assessment of the news agency, prices for grain group decreased following the similar dynamics on the world exchanges, while buyers of Ukrainian wheat took a wait-and-see attitude and focused on the fulfillment of previously concluded agreements. In turn, agrarians did not hurry with sales and expected demand and prices to recover.
Moldova: similar market dynamics, other reasons
Sunflower prices on the Moldovan market increased by $15/t on average by the end of the second week of April since the war in the Middle East started.
The increase occurred in two stages: first, in the first days of the conflict, a jump in average demand prices by $5/t; then a smooth – by $1-2/t per week – increase in prices with moderate demand. By the beginning of the current week, the average sunflower purchase price stabilized in the range of 11.1-11.5 lei/kg.
This week, as agro-marketing expert Iurie Rija notes, the largest traders stopped sunflower purchases due to the reduction of its supply (in large batches) by large agricultural producers. At the same time, some traders of the “second echelon” tried to close their “burning contracts” for sunflower export to Romania, so they offered abnormally high prices – 12.5-13.0 lei/kg – to sellers in the north of the Republic of Moldova, even for small batches of goods.
Wheat prices in Moldova in the first half of April almost did not change, the bulk of transactions were within the range of 3,15-3,25 lei/kg in the north, 3,30-3,40 lei/kg – in the south and in the country.
At the same time, as noted by grain market operators, transport companies, in response to the rise in fuel prices, tried to sharply increase tariffs (for road transportation). This became a deterrent for the activation of trading activity of trading companies.
By and large, as experts say, export deliveries are carried out only by those companies that, firstly, cover part of the route (to ports) by railroad transportation of grain; and secondly, have grain storage facilities in these ports. At the moment, a situational deficit of free capacities of port storage infrastructure is beginning to emerge. Therefore, those who have free warehouses have a temporary “monopoly on export” of grain in the short term.
