The National Association of Oilseed Processors of Kazakhstan and Fayz Oil Imports (Uzbekistan) have signed a memorandum of cooperation. Under the agreement, the Uzbek company during a year plans to purchase $60 million worth of sunflower oil from Kazakh processing plants that are members of the association.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, Uzbekistan is one of the top five importers of Kazakh sunflower oil and oilseed products. In the 2024/2025 season, Kazakhstan exported to Uzbekistan sunflower oil and millcake (used as food for cattle) for $349 million, an 82% increase compared to the previous season.
Kazakhstan has strengthened its position as a leader in the export of sunflower oil and processed oilseed products to Central Asian countries, becoming the main supplier to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in 2024. The share of Kazakh sunflower oil in the Uzbek market reached 65% (13% in 2017), and 74% in Tajikistan (15% in 2017).
Kazakhstan fully supplies the region with sunflower millcake, an important component in the production of feed for poultry and livestock.
The National Association of Oilseed Processors says it now supplies its products to more than 20 countries. “Kazakhstan’s sunflower oil export volumes already exceed the combined imports of Central Asian countries 1.5 times, and we are capable to fully meet the demand of this market,” the association said.
The Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration earlier announced that Kazakhstan entered the club of the world’s top 10 largest sunflower oil exporters, taking 8th place in 2024.
Kazakhstan has also become one of the top three leading suppliers of sunflower millcake to the European Union.
Over the past three years, sunflower oil production in Kazakhstan has grown by 2.5 times and exports by 4.8 times.
In 2024, export revenues from sunflower oil and millcake reached $562 million. In the coming years, Kazakhstan plans to increase this figure to $1 billion annually. Such growth will become possible due to the country’s program to diversify agricultural crops area, shifting away from wheat to more profitable oilseed crops, primarily sunflower.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2024, the area under oilseed crops in Kazakhstan reached 2.9 million hectares and will be further expanded to 3.3 million hectares by 2030.
Sunflower oil is only part of Kazakhstan’s total vegetable oil production, which also includes rapeseed and other types of cooking oil.
