CANNERIES WARN THAT ONLY THREE WEEKS’ SUPPLY OF SUNFLOWER OIL IS AVAILABLE

Empty shelves without sunflower oil bottles on supermarket shelves. This is the unusual picture that is being repeated these days in hundreds of supermarkets throughout Spain due to the fear of some consumers that there will be no stock for the next few months. A similar situation is also occurring with other products in which sunflower oil forms part of their composition, as is the case with canned food, the price of which has also risen. The canning industry warns that there is only three weeks’ worth of sunflower oil left for canning. For weeks they have been urgently seeking alternative markets to avoid shortages in the event of a possible stockout.

If a solution is not found soon, the paradox will be that cans of sunflower oil will be more expensive than cans of olive oil, even extra virgin oil, in the coming months. However, it may also happen that products canned in sunflower oil will disappear from the shelves due to a shortage of the raw material.

A situation that, as in Spain, is also occurring in many other countries, due to price increases and shortages. This is one of the first consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, which is having a major impact on the pockets of consumers, the first to feel the collateral effects of the conflict and which is directly affecting the shopping basket with a staggered rise in prices.

The problem for the Spanish canning industry is not small. They stake no less than 56% of their production, while the remaining 44% is bottled in olive oil. “It is possible that, if this situation is prolonged, this proportion will end up reversing and the product in olive oil will be cheaper and more in demand than sunflower oil, because the price increase is inevitable,” confirms Juan Manuel Vieites, secretary general of the National Association of Canned Fish Manufacturers (Anfaco-Cecopesca).

In this sense, he adds that “the problem is that we export to many international markets where the olive is not as well established in the culinary and consumer culture as sunflower”.

“Spanish companies in the sector use 98,000 tons of vegetable oils every year. The canneries had secured sunflower oil purchases for a period of six months, but the Ukrainian refineries are at a standstill, the ships are not moving through the Bosphorus Strait and the insurers are not taking charge as it is a war situation, so the industry could now face a shortage in a matter of three weeks or a month.”

In addition to the current difficult situation, there are few alternatives and those that do exist are more expensive. “There are other countries, such as Argentina, Moldova, Bulgaria, Brazil or France that also produce sunflower oil, but in insufficient quantities, and they are more expensive to import,” Vieites explains. This is why canneries look for substitutes such as soybean oil in order to maintain the same quality.

Another added problem, Russia had already vetoed Spanish fish products until December of this year. The canning industry also has a small market in Ukraine: it sells 368 tons of product per year, which together barely exceed 2.5 million euros in sales. Finally, the canning industry has asked European administrations and authorities to implement exceptional trade measures such as the suspension of tariff barriers in order to try to weather the crisis in the best possible way.