Russia’s vegetable-oil market grows 10% to 903 million liters

Market reaches 903 million liters

Russia’s vegetable-oil market expanded by 10% year on year to 903 million liters in January-June 2026, according to data from the Chestny Znak digital labeling system published by ZOL. The total covers vegetable oil produced domestically and imported into the country, providing a broad measure of available supply rather than retail sales alone.

The figures were supplied to RIA Novosti by the press service of the Center for Research in Perspective Technologies, or CRPT, which operates Chestny Znak. The data show that the increase was overwhelmingly supported by Russian processors: domestic companies supplied about 99% of the market during the six-month period.

Imports amounted to less than 11 million liters, leaving foreign products with only a small share of total volume. Olive oil dominated inbound supply at 7.7 million liters, an increase of 17% from the same period a year earlier. That growth indicates rising demand in a comparatively small, higher-priced segment, but it does not materially alter the market’s dependence on domestic output.

Sunflower oil and Volga plants lead growth

Sunflower oil remained the central product for Russian producers. Output reached 756 million liters in the first half, almost 9% more than in January-June of the previous year. The category represented 85% of total production, confirming that the overall market’s direction remains closely linked to sunflower processing capacity and the availability of domestic feedstock.

Production growth was particularly strong in the Volga Federal District. Its plants produced 293 million liters during the half-year period, one-third more than a year earlier. The district now accounts for more than one-third of national production, making it the country’s largest regional manufacturing base for vegetable oil.

The Central Federal District ranked second with a 31% share of the market. Production there increased by 4% year on year. The difference in growth rates suggests that the Volga district was the main source of additional domestic supply, while the Central district retained a large but more slowly expanding production base.

Wide price gap separates oil categories

Average prices reported by CRPT varied sharply by product. A liter of olive oil cost 1,200 rubles on average during the first half, compared with 130 rubles for sunflower oil. Linseed oil averaged 486 rubles per liter, while vegetable-oil blends cost 222 rubles. Olive oil was therefore priced at more than nine times the average level for sunflower oil, helping explain why import growth is concentrated in value rather than market-wide volume.

The labeling data also recorded vegetable-oil sales through vending machines, although the channel remains negligible. Only about 60 liters were sold through such machines across Russia during the entire six-month period. For producers, processors and distributors, the first-half figures point instead to conventional channels, large-scale domestic sunflower-oil production and rapidly expanding capacity utilization in the Volga district as the principal drivers of the market’s 10% growth.