For 10 years, the Oléandes oil mill has continued to grow to bring together nearly a hundred farmers today. This human-sized structure produces sunflower, organic sunflower, rapeseed, organic rapeseed oils as well as meal.
But Oléandes is facing a new, unprecedented and brutal situation due to the conflict in Ukraine. Indeed, even if the idea was to remain independent, to operate by the short circuit, production costs are exploding and world prices for sunflower are changing the situation.
– Oleanders
A necessary adaptation to the market price
As a result, Oléandes is forced to adapt to market prices for fear of seeing production move elsewhere. Today, in theory, oils from Oleanders are worth a fortune. Foreign buyers have also offered crazy sums for the existing production, but the cooperative prefers to keep its feet on the ground by sticking to the prices fixed at the time of the harvest. The only increases are related to the price of the packaging. However, an increase is to be expected for the next harvest.
What bothers Julien Saint-Palais, the director of Oléandes, is not having any visibility on the future, not knowing how the conflict in Ukraine will evolve.