Sunflower oil prices increase by up to 8%; importers: The price will reach 190 lek per liter

In the domestic market, besides the increase in fuel prices, there has also been a rise in food prices, driven by higher costs of supplies from importers.

The increase in fuel prices for refineries processing sunflower oil abroad, along with higher transport tariffs, has led domestic importers to raise the wholesale price of cooking oil by 7–8% during March.

In February, before the start of the war in the Middle East, according to importers, sunflower oil was traded at a wholesale price of 176 to 178 lek per liter. Starting from the third week of March, importers state they were forced to increase the price by about 5 lek per liter, bringing it to 182–183 lek per liter.

From the beginning of the last week of March, importers of processed oil packaged in the country say there will be another increase of 7 lek per liter. After these increases, the wholesale price of cooking oil reaches 190 lek per liter.

One of the sunflower oil importers explained to “Monitor” that the reason for the price increase is the rise in product prices from manufacturing factories and higher transport costs.

“Producers of oil in Hungary, from where Albania is supplied, have increased their selling price due to higher costs from fuel and other energy sources used by refineries. Just from the increase in fuel costs, supply prices have risen by 1.5 lek per liter.

After the war began, there has also been a noticeable increase in transport tariffs. While in February the cost to transport 1 ton of oil ranged from 140 to 160 USD, after the war started, the transport tariff reached 200 USD per ton. This adds another 1 lek per liter to the price of imported oil.”

A similar situation with rising sunflower oil prices also occurred in March 2022.

After the start of the Russia–Ukraine war and the difficulties created in importing sunflower oil, prices in the Albanian market increased by about 33%. In March 2022, the retail price of sunflower oil was 330 lek per liter, up from 249 lek per liter in February (a 32.5% increase).

After this period, the price increased by another 9%, reaching 370 lek per liter, while by mid-April the retail price peaked at 400 lek per liter.

Experts emphasize that the lack of domestic production of cooking oil once again showed that the Albanian economy lacks a key buffer to curb price inflation.

Albania previously had two oil processing refineries the factory of the company “Olim” and the company “Vajra Bimore,” which marketed the “Fiol” oil, but currently neither imports unprocessed oil (crude) to refine it into cooking oil. Since 2016, for nearly a decade, processing companies have shifted to packaging imported refined oil.

“KORÇA BOOM”