Fish fried cooked with sunflower oil are seen on a plate at Los Cazadores bar in Ronda
Fish fried with sunflower oil are seen on a plate at Los Cazadores bar in Ronda, Spain, March 19, 2022. Picture taken March 19, 2022. Reuters / JON NAZCA

The effects of the Ukraine crisis are now beginning to appear in food plates across the world as sunflower oil, which the East European nation accounts for 80 percent of global production together with Russia, has become the most sought-after commodity.

The 27-member European Union (EU) has been facing a shortfall in sunflower oil as the conflict has blocked exports from key supplier Ukraine, FEDIOL, EU vegetable oil industry group, said at the beginning of this month.

EU sources nearly 45 percent of sunflower oil from Ukraine and the available stocks in the EU may exhaust by the second week of next month, the industry body was quoted by Reuters as saying.

To mitigate the impact, the EU has started diverting limited volumes of sunflower oil meant for biodiesel fuel to the food market and is banking on other products such as rapeseed oil, soybean oil, and tropical oils to tide over the crisis.

Besides its use as popular cooking oil by thousands of households and families around the world, sunflower oil is also a key ingredient in the production of margarine and baby food. It is also used for the preparation of preserves, mayonnaise, sauces, spreadable dressing, and bakery products like biscuits.

Following the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union, an agrarian Ukraine assumed the role of a breadbasket for the world and the Black Sea became a vital trading route for agricultural products.

After Ukraine, Russia is the next biggest sunflower-oil exporter. Trade with Russia is hit due to the sweeping Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russian and Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea are export hubs for sunflower oil. Russian forces are reportedly blocking shipping routes and parts of the Black Sea which is now considered too risky for ships to pass through, forcing insurance firms to charge more and ships to change the course.

Upping the ante on Black Sea ports is considered as economic warfare by Russia to block normal trade and to deprive Ukraine of the resources to sustain a war effort. But it has imposed, either directly or indirectly, severe costs on almost every country in the world.

The Federation of the Dutch Food Industry (FNLI) has already pressed the panic button, warning of a serious shortage of sunflower oil. Two-thirds of the Netherlands' sunflower oil stock is sourced from Ukraine.

To discourage shoppers from bulk buying, a few supermarkets in the country have already started to ration supplies and purchases of sunflower oil. Customers have been asked to buy only one bottle at a time.

Currently, the country is banking on alternatives, such as rapeseed oil, linseed oil, or palm oil to meet the crisis. However, the transition is not easy as packaging and food labeling cannot be promptly indicated within short notice.

Turkey, one of the six countries on the shores of the Black Sea, announced March 9 that it was banning all exports of oils and margarine due to the crisis in Ukraine. The decision came despite reassurances from the Ministry of Agriculture that the country had enough reserves of sunflower oil.

Turkey consumes over 3 million tonnes of sunflower oil per year and nearly 1.7 million tonnes of that demand are met locally. The NATO member nation relies on Russia and Ukraine to cover the rest.

Though the conflict is taking place far from them, it has hit many ordinary South Africans due to a shortage in sunflower oil and the cost of living has increased for many of them.

South Africa imports 174,138 tonnes of sunflower oil per year from the world market. The impact on the vegetable oil market will be visible within the next few months and already stockpiling and panic buying of cooking oils have been reported in Africa's largest economy.

In Indonesia, the shortage turned fatal and claimed the lives of two people who breathed their last while queuing to buy cooking oil as stocks are running low due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The fatal mishaps took place in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, a major center of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in the East Asian country.

To meet the shortage, Indonesia has directed exporters to set aside 30 percent of palm oil products for domestic use, up from the previous 20 percent.

Shipments of more than 3,50,000 tonnes of cooking oil to India, the world's largest buyer of sunflower oil with imports as high as 60 percent of its domestic needs, are stuck at various ports.

Quoting Sandeep Bajoria, president of the International Sunflower Oil Association, Reuters said that India had placed orders for 5,50,000 tonnes of sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia to be delivered in February and March. Till October last year, India bought 1.89 million tonnes of crude cooking oil, with Ukraine supplying 74 percent of it.

With Russian forces trying to capture major cities like Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Nikolaev, Luhansk, Odessa and Poltava, which make up a significant portion of the total cultivated area in the country, sunflower seeds stored in these areas are beyond the reach of export crushers. Moreover, logistical constraints have prevented farmers' from buying fertilizers as planting season nears.

Sunflower seeds are sown in April and May in Ukraine to harvest in September. With trading routes being blocked, export facilities shut down, and farmers not able to plant and harvest, the average yield per hectare of sunflower will take a major blow this season.

Due to the focus on the export market, most Ukrainian crushing plants are operated near ports on the Black Sea and are far away from the cultivated areas of the central and eastern parts of the country.

As peace negotiations appear to be headed to nowhere, hard times lie ahead which may take the form of misery and unrest.