According to customs data, the average invoice price of sunflower oil exports in January this year amounted to 22.70 lei/kg. The January price was higher than in the first month of last year (20.20 lei/kg). But it was slightly lower than the price level in December 2025, when the product was supplied to foreign markets at 23.1 lei/kg.
Probably, this circumstance to some extent affected the sales dynamics – in January compared to December it slightly decreased. However, the demand for this commodity in the Black Sea region is growing due to the difficulties with sea deliveries of sunflower oil from Ukraine, provoked by the war. Consequently, in February and possibly in spring the process of external supplies of sunflower oil from Moldova will intensify.
Price matters
In fact, it is the key element of the market evolution in the current season.
The average export price of sunflower oil between July 2025 and January 2026 was around 22.2 lei/kg, which allows processors to operate profitably, cover high raw material costs and debt financing. The current price is higher compared to the previous season and significantly higher than in 2023-2024, when the average price fell to 14.7 lei/kg.
The increase in sunflower oil prices was due to both higher prices of raw material (sunflower) and stronger demand for sunflower oil in the region. The combination of factors quickly affected Moldova’s revenue from oil exports.
In the period under review, the country’s financial revenues from sunflower oil exports reached 1.46 billion lei, which is more than nine times higher than in the previous season, when revenues amounted to only 154 million lei.
Partial recovery of positions
Compared to the low comparable base of the previous marketing season, the revenue from sunflower oil exports in the current marketing season is an unqualified success.
However, as agro-marketing expert Yuri Rizha believes, the current level of exports cannot be considered a normal indicator for this most important export-oriented industry. In his opinion, “we can rather talk about partial restoration of its positions in the structure of the real sector of the country’s economy and in foreign markets”.
This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the volume of exports in the current season remains more than twice lower than in the period from July 2023 to January 2024 (138.7 thousand tons of sunflower oil were delivered abroad).
“Thus, the oilseed processing industry has not yet fully recovered the losses and production rate of previous years,” the expert summarizes.
Compared to the 2023-2024 season, the situation is particularly indicative of the importance of raw material prices (and costs in general) in the economic model of oilseed processing. Although in that season the volume of oil exports was more than twice as high as in the current season, the total revenue amounted to 2.34 billion lei, which is only 28% more than in the current season. Overall, with more than double the volume of exported commodity, the industry received relatively modest revenues due to the extremely low prices of the exported commodity at that time.
Who is the leader?
In the exporters’ ranking, the absolute leader of the season is Floare Soarelui S.A., which exported more than 30 thousand tons of sunflower oil, underlining its status as a leading player in the sunflower processing industry.
In second place in the exporters’ ranking is Global Farming International with more than 20.6 thousand tons. Danube Oil Company SRL closes the top three with 8.3 thousand tons of oil.
