This week, many retail chains in Europe announced in their supermarkets that every customer will not be able to buy more than 3-4 bottles of vegetable oil. The product was missing due to the outage of supply from Ukraine and Russia.

Germany's biggest chains, Lidl, Aldi and Edeka, reported that there was a shortage of vegetable oil and that in the near future prices will only grow rapidly. According to inFranken, if at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic the population bought in bulk not only food, but also personal hygiene items, today one of the most sought after products, oil, is gradually disappearing from the shelves. And not just sunflower, but also rapeseed.

According to Lebensmittel Zeitung (LZ), Aldi Süd even limited the sale of its own brand to four bottles per customer due to the shortage of vegetable oil. There are several reasons for the shortage. It is a combination of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, poor harvests and rising production costs. In addition, according to LZ, two major manufacturers in Europe have stopped production.

The interruption of supply of two of the most important exporters of sunflower and rapeseed, Russia and Ukraine, only worsened the situation. In addition, retail chains need to rewrite price tags. Last year, edible oil in the lowest price segment was still available for less than 1 euro. And today, buyers are required to pay at least 1.8-2 euros for a bottle of oil.   

Spanish jails followed the example of their German counterparts. They also started rationing the sale of sunflower oil so that there is no lack of merchandise." At the moment we have stock in stock," said Primitivo Fernández, president of Anierac, an association representing Spain's edible oil industry. But if supplies are not resumed soon, there are likely to be inventory issues on the shelves.

Source: Agrolink