UK’s biggest bottler has few weeks’ supply of sunflower oil left

UK’s biggest cooking oil bottler has warned that it has just a few weeks’ supply of sunflower oil left as Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt exports.

Edible Oils, the company which packages oil for 75 percent of the UK retail market, is ramping up supplies of other oils for shoppers, BBC reported on Monday (4).

Kim Matthews, commercial director at Edible Oils said 80 percent of the global supply of sunflower oil comes out of Russia and Ukraine.

“So obviously, with everything going on out there, we physically can’t get sunflower to be coming out of the country,” he said.

“From a UK consumer perspective, sunflower oil is the biggest oil. It’s used more than anything else.

“It’s a fast moving situation. We’re still trying to see if we can get some more but it’s looking very tight,” Matthews said.

Edible Oils Ltd has upped production and is reportedly trying to make sure it has plenty of rapeseed and other oils to put on the shelves when the sunflower oil goes.

It is still far from clear when sunflower oil supplies will be back to normal.

“At the moment, Ukrainian farmers should be sowing the seeds now for the harvest in October and November.

“Clearly that’s not going to happen… we’re probably going to miss the season so we could be impacted for 12-18 months,” Matthews said.

Meanwhile, manufacturers of foods that contain sunflower oil, like crisps, oven chips and cereal bars, are reportedly reworking their recipes.

The Food Standards Agency has advised people with allergies to look out for extra information from shops and food makers.

The situation has left manufacturers of foods that contain sunflower oil – found in hundreds of products including crisps, oven chips and cereal bars – looking for alternative ingredients like rapeseed oil, prices of which are now skyrocketing at the moment due to sudden surge in demand.