For the past week, Dominique Defay has been spending 15 hours a day in the cabin of his ultra-connected tractor. “It’s sowing time for sunflowers”, explains this farmer from Tennie (Sarthe) on Tuesday, April 26. He works on a 170-hectare polyculture farm and, this year, he gave pride of place to sunflowers. “I had planned about twenty hectares of sunflower. I finally added 9 hectares more.”
Like him, many farmers have decided to grow more sunflowers. Thus, according to the Federation of Oilseed Producers, the areas devoted to this crop should represent 800,000 hectares in 2022 according to forecasts, against 700,000 in 2021. The reason: the war in Ukraine. Indeed, Ukraine and Russia together account for 80% of the world production of sunflower oil. The conflict therefore leads to supply problems, with consumers overstocking. If the shortage is not proven for the moment, it could be felt in September if the conflict continues. The French State has also anticipated and authorized manufacturers to use other oils without modifying their packaging.
Some farmers therefore felt that there was an opportunity there. “It was really the Ukrainian conflict that made me make this decision”, confirms Dominique Defay. The price of seeds has indeed risen sharply. “Today, the sunflower is worth almost 800 euros per tonne. A year and a half ago, it was barely worth 400.” He therefore hopes that his “bet on the future” to strengthen its sunflower production will be “economically interesting”.
Some of the 90 farmers of the Oléandes cooperative, based in Mugron in the Landes, made the same bet. The company produces a cold-pressed oil, already sold 30% more expensive than industrial oil. And its price has gone up again: “We were between 4 euros and 4.50 euros a bottle. Now we are on 5 euros”, explains Julien Saint-Palais, the company’s general manager. However, this does not discourage buyers, according to him.
“Buyers are really desperate. They can’t find other oils anywhere else.”
Julien Saint-Palais, CEO of Oléandesat franceinfo
The company, which is already running at full speed, is in high demand, “a lot of industrialists and restaurateurs”. And it does not stop at the borders of France. “We were contacted by Spain or Italy!says Julien Saint-Palais. Unfortunately, the little extra oil we had was sold out in a few days.”
If the increase in production capacities is a short-term solution, the supply problems require real reflection, according to Mickaël Nogal, the general manager of National Association of Food Industries. “The medium and long term solution is to work on food sovereignty, not to put all the eggs in one basket”he analyzes. The goal? “To be certain that tomorrow, in the event of a crisis, we are not taken aback and that we can have alternatives.” In the absence of sunflower oil, consumers will be able to fall back on rapeseed, the areas of which should increase by 18% compared to 2021.