Русский
China purchased almost 1 million tonnes of vegetable oil from Russia from September 2025 to February 2026 (the first half of the 2025-2026 agricultural year for oils and fats products), up 16% compared to a year earlier, the Agroexport federal center has stated.
This means that Russia became the main source of these products for China during this period, displacing India from the first place. This level of vegetable oil exports from Russia to China is the second highest on record.
This global market has increased demand for Russian rapeseed oil during the reporting period to 0.8 million tonnes (+19%), Agroexport said. This is partially due to a worsening situation with imported canola supplies to China due to an ongoing China-Canada trade conflict and the sluggish pace of Australian raw material arriving at Chinese oil mills as an alternative procurement channel.
Agroexport stated that “Shipments of sunflower, soybean, and linseed oils from Russia to China in September-February of the 2025-2026 agricultural year remained at about the same level as the same period last year.”
Analysts also said that an additional driver for China’s rise to the first position among importers of Russian vegetable oil was the situation in the Black Sea region. Due to the reduction in the availability level of sunflower seeds, as well as against the backdrop of increased competition for raw materials among oil mills and more restrained rates of seed processing, export prices (FOB) in the Azov-Black Sea basin jumped to multi-year highs, thereby cooling the interest in purchases from India and Turkiye. These countries took second and third places, respectively, in the ranking of the main importers of Russian vegetable oils in the first half of the season.
Vegetable oil is a primary cooking oil in Chinese cuisine, and the country needs to import to keep up with domestic demand.
