Over the past few years, the soybean segment in Ukraine has been showing steady growth in all areas - from gross harvest to processing and exports. Thus, in 2024 alone, the soybean area increased by more than 30% to a record 2.68 mln ha, and the gross harvest of soybeans in Ukraine exceeded 6 mln tonnes for the first time, amounting to about 6.1-6.2 mln tonnes, which is one of the highest in Europe.
Against this background, Ukraine is witnessing a second wave of growth in soybean exports and processing. Thus, according to APK-Inform, the export potential of Ukrainian soybeans in 2024/25 MY may reach the record level for the industry, amounting to 3.5-3.6 mln tonnes (+11% compared to 2023/24 MY). Soybean processing in 2024/25 MY can also update the historical record (2 mln tonnes in 2018/19 MY) and grow to 2.3-2.4 mln tonnes (+24% by 2023/24 MY).
All these circumstances were the key reasons for holding the largest event in the soybean industry of Ukraine - the conference “Soybean and Meal market”, which took place on March 27 at the Premier Palace Hotel (Kyiv).
The conference was organized by APK-Inform Agency and Ukrainian Bean and Soybean Association. The event was supported by Danube Soya, Ukroliyaprom, Pig Breeders of Ukraine and Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, International Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA), Seed Association of Ukraine, and Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation. Payoneer was the financial sponsor of the conference.
This event was considered by the organizers and participants as an effective discussion platform to discuss the plans of Ukrainian agricultural producers regarding priorities for the 2025 sowing campaign, current issues and forecasts for further development of the situation in the soybean sector, as well as prospects for the new 2025/26 season. And Soybean and Meal market fully met these expectations!
During the discussion panels, experts discussed the most pressing issues of the global soybean market, as well as the problematic aspects of the Ukrainian segment, shared exclusive and interesting insights.
The conference was attended by over 130 delegates from Austria, Bulgaria, the UK, Germany, the UAE, Poland, Romania and, of course, Ukraine. Among them were leading soybean producers, oilseed processors and traders, agricultural holdings, industry associations, representatives of government agencies, etc.
The event was opened with welcoming remarks by Oksana Osmachko, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, Antonina Skliarenko, President of the Ukrainian Bean and Soybean Association, and Svitlana Kyrychok, leading analyst at APK-Inform Agency, who emphasized the importance of the conference and wished the participants fruitful work.
The conference started with the market session “Global Trends and Peculiarities of the Ukrainian Soybean Market” moderated by Viktoriia Blazhko, Head of Editorial Content and Analytics at ASAP Agri. In her speech, she focused on the key trends in the global soybean market, describing the main players and global challenges for this segment. In particular, Mrs. Blazhko called Brazil a kind of “locomotive” of the global soybean market, which over the past ten seasons has increased its annual production of the oilseed by 73 mln tonnes and its exports by 51 mln tonnes. Among the key drivers of Brazil's “soybean breakthrough” she noted the development of cultivation technologies, generally favorable climatic conditions and growing demand for soybeans on the world market. Other growth factors were the development of infrastructure and the introduction of a biodiesel mandate in the country.
Anna Platonova, Senior Price Observer of the oilseeds and their products market in the Black Sea region at Fastmarkets, continued the analysis of the current trends in the global soybean market. She emphasized that in 2024/25 MY Ukraine entered the TOP-10 soybean producers in the world, ranking ninth in the rating. Speaking in more detail about the export of Ukrainian soybeans, Ms. Platonova noted that in the current season the EU is one of the main markets for the domestic oilseed and is likely to remain so in the next MY..
“This year, Europe is buying significant volumes of soybeans from Ukraine, which is the third largest supplier after Brazil and Argentina with a share of 11.6% in total imports compared to 8% a year earlier,” she said.
Volodymyr Pugachov, Executive Director of the Danube Soybean Association in Eastern Europe, spoke about the EU regulation mechanism for sustainable development of the agri-food sector, which Ukrainian soybean producers and processors should already prepare for. In particular, he reminded that the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which is currently being implemented in the European Union, will eventually become part of Ukrainian legislation. According to the directive, companies will have to analyze their impact using two different approaches, i.e. how their business affects people and the planet, and how sustainability and climate change affect business.
"As for Ukraine, according to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine's Decree No. 1015 dated 18.10.2024, CSRD becomes part of the national legislation. In particular, the Order adopted an operational plan for the implementation of the introduction of sustainable development reporting by enterprises during 2024-2026," said Mr. Pugachev.
The first session was concluded with the presentation of Svitlana Kyrychok, the oilseeds market analyst of APK-Inform Agency, who gave the detailed analysis of the current trends of the Ukrainian soybean market in 2024/25 MY and shared the forecasts of APK-Inform Agency for the next season. Among other things, she noted that the prospects for soybean processing in Ukraine in the second half of the current season look a bit pessimistic.
"The global market is expecting a record soybean harvest in South America, increased processing in Argentina, and increased supply in the soybean meal sector, which has been overloaded in the last few seasons. In addition, the increased tensions in the US-EU trade relations, as well as the already imposed tariffs in the soybean sector by China, may contribute to the continued high demand for Ukrainian raw materials on the foreign market, which will shift the vector in the distribution of this crop on the domestic market in favor of exports," the analyst explained.
Speaking about the prospects of the soybean harvest in Ukraine in 2025, Ms. Kyrychok said that according to APK-Inform Agency, the production of soybeans may decrease to 5.7-5.8 mln tonnes, but it will be one of the highest figures for the industry. This will be primarily due to the reduction of the planted areas under the crop by 10-13% compared to the previous year, to about 2.3-2.35 mln ha.
The first market session highlighted a number of key factors that will have a significant impact on the Ukrainian market in the near future:
- The end of the duty-free trade regime with the EU and whether it will be extended;
- introduction of import duties for trading partners by the US President Donald Trump and how Ukraine can take advantage of it;
- intensification of competition in the main soybean markets;
- adaptation of Ukrainian farmers to the new EU EUDR regulation and whether it will be adopted or postponed again;
- growth of soybean liquidity as a factor in maintaining the area under this crop in the coming years;
- reduction of processing profitability at factories, etc.
The Soybean and Meal market program continued with the discussion panel “Peculiarities of soybean trade in the current market conditions” moderated by Antonina Sklyarenko, President of the Ukrainian Soybean Association, and attended by representatives of government institutions, soybean producers, traders, brokers, analysts, and representatives of financial institutions.
Vadym Chaikovskyi, Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, opened the speeches of the experts, reminding that starting from February 3, 2025, Ukraine will fully issue phytosanitary certificates in the ePhyto system - 30 thsd electronic phytosanitary certificates have already been issued and about 3 thsd have been accepted from other countries.
"We will move away from counterfeiting. Our electronic phytosanitary certificate will be seen by the country instantly. It will be transferred to their electronic system through the hub. We joined ePhyto thanks to the work of the Europeans. FAO, GIS and ILCA project helped us a lot, thanks to which not a single penny was spent from the Ukrainian budget." - Mr. Chaikovskyi emphasized.
Pavlo Zhovtonizhko, Director of Falcon Agro Group LLC, focused the audience's attention on the peculiarities of exporting Ukrainian soybean meal to the EU countries. He reminded that the main requirement in the EU for the quality of imported soybean meal is the protein content of the product, but there are several other requirements that are emphasized.
“Safety indicators are very important, as the EU has recently made them more stringent, so when using soybean meal in livestock, you need to have a clear guarantee that it will not affect the health of animals,” he said.
Also, according to Mr. Zhovtonizhko, considerable attention is paid to fiber content, but this is more of a commercial than a consumer factor. Thus, the contract sets an upper limit for protein and a lower limit for fiber. In this regard, the processor has to underestimate the fiber content as much as possible, but from an economic point of view, it makes sense.
Anton Zhemerdeev, Deputy CEO for Commercial Affairs of TAS Agro, expressed hope that the next season for oilseeds in Ukraine will be even more record-breaking, “because many people are changing their crop rotation, reducing grains and increasing oilseeds.”
“And, in fact, for the next season, we see a soybean harvest of about 4.6-4.8 mln tonnes,” he predicted.
As for the soybean processing in the next season, according to Mr. Zhemerdeyev, a lot in the new season will depend on the continuation of the trend of the current MY, when the processors were forced to start the soybean processing in the conditions of the sunflower raw material shortage.
In his speech, Stepan Kapshuk, the CEO of Ukroliyaprom Association, focused on the overall performance of the Ukrainian oilseed market in 2024/25 MY, calling it a failure.
"Why do I think so? We do not have the balance of interests, which is why we have the reduction of processing. Ukraine has a great potential for oilseeds processing, but more than 7 mln tonnes of oilseeds are currently exported. This is because today we have losses of $10 to $30 per ton," he said.
Speaking about soybeans, Mr. Kapshuk noted that Ukraine has the ability to process the entire oilseed crop, but it is not being realized due to the lack of potential to increase feed production.
"There are problems with the meal, because the domestic market cannot consume everything produced. Therefore, it does not need the product in full. As for importers, Turkey currently considers it more useful to import soybeans rather than meal. Egypt is currently reoriented to the purchase of U.S. soybeans," the expert added.
At the end of the discussion, Igor Gerasko, Head of Sales at Payoneer-Ukraine, characterized his company as the one that provides Ukrainian exporters with “financial rails” for their business.
"It's very interesting that at such events we hear insights that we usually don't have access to because we communicate with financiers, and the things we discuss with agroexporters and agrocompanies are of a slightly different nature. And there are really interesting insights into how this or that industry lives, how the government helps, among other things," he said.
The panel discussed the prospects for sales of not only soybeans but also other pulses, including peas, for which the Chinese market has opened up. The panelists noted that soybean meal also has good chances to enter this market.
Among other things, the experts analyzed in detail the main reasons that made the plants switch to soybean processing this season, how successfully Ukrainian meal competes with Argentine meal in terms of key quality indicators in the EU market, why it is necessary to take a time out from building new plants, and much more.
Then, after a short coffee break, the conference continued with the second discussion panel - “Key aspects of EUDR in the context of Ukrainian soybeans”. The panel was moderated by Kateryna Postolenko, Head of Sustainable Development Department at Bureau Veritas Certification Ukraine LLC, and was attended by soybean producers, certification companies, and representatives of industry associations.
Among the main issues discussed was how to organize exports to the EU after the regulation comes into force, as there is no clear explanation for farmers at the state level yet.
Experts noted that in trade with the EU countries, this will affect all participants in the soybean market - both exporters of raw materials and processors exporting meal and oil, but the main burden may fall on Ukrainian agricultural producers.
Speaking in general about the need to implement the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in Ukraine, Vasyl Antonenko, Head of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Group at the Government Office for European Integration of the CMU Secretariat, noted that “one way or another, we have to implement this regulation.”
"This is in parallel with the fact that we have to comply with this regulation in terms of exporting our products. Therefore, we need legislation. First of all, there must be a law and then, accordingly, bylaws. This is not a quick process, but at least we need to work on this issue," he said.
At the same time, Mr. Antonenko emphasized that the procedure for drafting the relevant legislative act provides for a mechanism for its approval, “and there are business associations that should raise this issue with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.”
In her speech, Tetiana Alaverdova, Head of Sales of Grains, Oilseeds, Pulses and Niche Products at MHP, analyzed the main challenges and obstacles that Ukrainian soybean producers may face in implementing the requirements of the EUDR regulation and how these challenges can be overcome.
"Among other things, we have to remember and properly build the processes that exist in the company. This is a matter of proper accounting. For example, the same trucks cannot transport EUDR and non-EUDR soybeans. Therefore, this should also be approached in a balanced manner. The fact that one elevator can store both types of soybeans is, in my opinion, a very controversial issue. But there should be clear traceability of where the soybeans are stored and how they are stored. And further along the chain - where it goes, whether to a processing plant, or directly to a warehouse in a port for further transshipment, or by wagons, which also cannot carry both EUDR and non-EUDR soybeans," she said.
According to the expert, these and other issues need to be addressed now - to prepare, to build a clear scheme and understand what is missing, to approach the association with questions that need to be clarified.
Olena Bogusheva, Head of the Quality Management Systems Group at Kernel, supported Mrs Alaverdova's position that Ukrainian business does not yet have a full understanding of how EUDR requirements will be implemented in Ukraine..
"We can collect any information on any movement of products: from cultivation to the very wagon with the meal. But what kind of proof of this information is required of us? We can do this, but when we unite in associations, conduct training, trading should be involved in this process anyway, having experience in sales, supporting producers and giving explanations. At the moment, we cannot do this because we do not understand everything yet," she said.
Oksana Prosolenko, CEO & Founder of I.P.Cert, noted that it will be much easier for Ukrainian exporters or producers certified under any sustainability system to comply with the requirements of the EUDR regulation after its implementation.
"First, it is easier to understand what it is and what it is for. Most of the requirements of the regulation are already regulated and managed by the company. That is, the stress and challenges are not so great. I believe that all voluntary sustainability certification schemes help now and will help in the future," she explained.
According to Mrs Prosolenko, very often everything new is assessed negatively. But, the expert emphasized, they make us stronger, more competitive, and allow us to sell in any market in the world without any restrictions.
“And this will definitely be an advantage, you will definitely be able to make money on it,” she summarized.
The last part of the Soybean and Meal market conference was the market panel “Soybean Processing and Feed Production: Insights from Experts and Opportunities for Business Expansion”.
The panel was opened by Oksana Yurchenko, President of Pig Producers of Ukraine, who spoke about the current state and prospects of the Ukrainian pig industry and described the current state of the feed base in this segment.
"If we are talking about feed as part of the cost of pork production, it is on average 70%. Of course, the ideal period for a livestock producer, including a pig farmer, is when grain is cheaper. Speaking more specifically about soybeans and sunflower, which are considered to be a protein group in the animal diet, it is about 20% of the diet. Accordingly, in 2024, when about 1.8 mln - 2 mln tonnes of feed were consumed, the protein group was at the level of 360 thsd tonnes," she noted.
Speaking in more detail about the protein group of feed, Mrs. Yurchenko noted that currently it is dominated by sunflower cake, which is cheaper, while soybeans are “loved” for their amino acid composition and other nutritional indicators.
"Considering the price, 1 part of soybean processing products is added to 2 parts of sunflower. However, if soybean meal becomes cheaper, its share in the diet will increase. Soybeans are important, but the price will play an important role. Sunflower is still beating soybeans because it is cheaper," the expert said. 
Kateryna Mudriyan, Chief Analyst for Oilseeds and Oils at ASAP Agri, presented an analysis of global trends in the global and Ukrainian soybean meal market as a driver of domestic soybean processing.
In particular, she emphasized that the global soybean meal market is currently showing a steady upward trend. Thus, in 2024/25 MY USDA forecasts the global consumption of soybean meal to increase to 270.4 mln tonnes, which is 15 mln tonnes higher than last year.
"Ukraine, which is actively developing, cannot stay away from this trend. Therefore, in the current season, Ukraine demonstrates significant progress in soybean meal exports due to the active development of processing capacities and increase in exports," the analyst said.
At the same time, Ms. Mudriyan added that Ukraine is facing over-competition in this segment of the global market.
"If we look at the leading producers of soybean meal in the world and their shares, we will see that Ukraine accounts for only 1%. The US, Brazil, and Argentina together account for 46% of global production," she emphasized.
However, according to the expert, Ukrainian soybean meal has a number of strategic advantages. For instance, the Ukrainian product does not contain GMOs, which is in line with the growing demand for environmentally friendly products. In addition, the ability to ship the product by Handysize class vessels makes Ukrainian meal more competitive than Argentine product.
Yuriy Doroshev, Chief Operating Officer of Liubarets Soybean Processing Plant, expressed concern about possible trends in the further development of the soybean processing market in Ukraine. He noted that sunflower cake has always been cheaper than soybean cake, but this year they have equalized in price because there is “simply no sunflower.”
"Next year, we will plant sunflower and corn again, and soybean production will decline. I am not ready to say how much. But the consumption trend worries me a bit, because the main consumer is pig farmers and this is domestic consumption. Domestic consumption today is completely dictated by the war. Physically, it cannot reach what we would like," the expert said.
Among other things, the second market panel discussed the following issues
- Problems of soybean meal and cake sales due to oversupply in the domestic market and whether to expect an increase in demand from the livestock sector;
- Competition of small processors with large MNEs and whether cake can compete with meal in key markets;
- Why demand for non-GMO soybean meal is falling in the EU, etc.
Summarizing the general conclusions of the Soybean and Meal market conference, we can confidently say that this event was in demand and relevant for its participants.
It is also important to note that the Ukrainian agricultural sector is actively developing even in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion, and the soybean market is steadily increasing its share in the overall structure of crops and expanding its presence on the global market.
APK-Inform Agency expresses its gratitude to the partners who helped to organize and hold the conference, as well as to all its participants.
See you at the next events!
