Kazakhstan lifts vegetable oil output by 29.1% as sunflower exports accelerate
Kazakhstan produced 673,200 tonnes of vegetable oil in January–July 2026, up 29.1% year on year. Sunflower oil dominated output, while first-half vegetable oil exports rose 46.2% to 560,600 tonnes.
Vegetable oil production climbs by nearly a third
Kazakhstan produced 673,200 tonnes of refined and unrefined vegetable oil in January–July 2026, a year-on-year increase of 29.1%, according to DKNews.kz. Output has quadrupled from 166,600 tonnes in the same period of 2016, with growth accelerating particularly over the past three years.
Production reached 389,900 tonnes in January–July 2023, increased to 427,400 tonnes in 2024 and then to 521,300 tonnes in 2025. Sunflower oil remained the industry’s core product in 2026. Unrefined sunflower oil output rose 29.4% to 473,100 tonnes, while refined production increased 13.5% to 104,800 tonnes. Together, the two categories accounted for 85.8% of all vegetable oil produced in the country.
Rapeseed oil grows as soybean and cottonseed output falls
Outside the sunflower segment, refined rapeseed oil recorded the strongest expansion. Production almost doubled, rising 96.2% to 60,200 tonnes. Soybean oil output moved in the opposite direction, declining 9.2% to 7,900 tonnes, while cottonseed oil production fell 29.7% to 3,300 tonnes.
The processing increase is being supported by a broader domestic oilseed base. Kazakhstan harvested a record 4.9 million tonnes of oilseeds in 2025. For the 2026 harvest, planted area expanded by 30% to 5.2 million hectares.
Sunflower acreage reached a record 2.2 million hectares, 25% more than a year earlier and 2.3 times the 2021 level. The expansion gives processors more domestic feedstock and creates room for further growth in export-oriented crushing and refining.
Exports outpace production growth
Kazakhstan exported 560,600 tonnes of vegetable oil in the first half of 2026, up 46.2% year on year. Domestic market sales, by contrast, decreased 24.5% to 121,100 tonnes. Local producers supplied 85.8% of combined domestic demand and exports, compared with 82.5% a year earlier, as imports grew only 1.8% to 97,100 tonnes. The import share consequently declined from 17.5% to 14.2%.
The export orientation was even more pronounced in sunflower oil. First-half production increased 28.2% to 498,500 tonnes, and exports climbed 41.2% to 481,000 tonnes. Imports fell 2.8% to 66,300 tonnes, while domestic sales declined 28% to 83,900 tonnes. Local producers supplied 88.3% of the market and export requirement, up from 85.1%.
China position strengthens while domestic prices rise
In 2025, Kazakhstan ranked sixth among the world’s sunflower oil exporters and second among suppliers to China, DKNews.kz reported. Kazakh oil and fat products now reach more than 20 countries. Sunflower oil exports generated $533 million in January–June 2026 and became one of the country’s principal non-resource and processed export products.
Higher output has not translated into lower retail prices. Vegetable oil prices in Kazakhstan were 7.7% higher year on year in August 2026 and had risen 4.9% since the start of the year. Sunflower oil averaged 904 tenge per litre, with city prices ranging from 821 tenge in Turkistan to 1,000 tenge in Zhezkazgan. Meanwhile, the FAO global vegetable oil price index rose 0.6% in August to its highest level since June 2022, driven by palm and soybean oil, even as international sunflower and rapeseed oil prices declined.
