EU’s 10-fold boost to Argentine sunseed imports

Bloomberg

The European Union is buying more sunflower seeds from Argentina, the world’s fourth-largest producer, as a cut in export taxes and a weaker peso make imports cheaper.
Shipments into the EU may be up to 10 times bigger in the 2015-16 season ending in July compared to a year earlier, said Veysel Kaya, founder of brokerage and consultancy Sunseedman in Edirne, Turkey. A first vessel of Argentine sunseed has already sailed to Portugal and another two are scheduled, one heading to France and the other to the Netherlands, he said.
Argentina scrapped a tax on sunseed exports last year, helping boost shipments and pressuring prices in Europe and the Black Sea region, according to a report from Oil World.
Depreciating peso also helped boost overseas sales of the crop, which is pressed to extract an oil commonly used in cooking.

More Shipments
“There has been a lot of business, most of the business has been to Europe,” Thomas Mielke, executive director at Oil World, said by phone from Hamburg. “There will be more shipments in April and May of business that has already been done.”
European imports of Argentine sunflower seeds may rise to 150,000 to 200,000 metric tons in 2015-16, up from about 20,000 tons a year earlier, Kaya of Sunseedman said by e-mail Tuesday.
The Golden Daisy vessel heading to Lisbon is carrying 15,500 tons, while the Jin Rui Feng ship will deliver supplies to the Netherlands and the Hong Fu ship to France, Kaya said, citing vessel line-up data.