Sunflower oil shortages reach Catalan supermarkets

Sunflower oil is one of Ukraine’s biggest exports – 44% of the oil imported into Catalonia originally comes from the war-torn country – and as such, the Russian invasion is having a strong knock-on effect on supermarket shelves around the world.

Prices had already started rising for both businesses such as restaurants as well as consumers. 

Now, many sellers are even putting caps on how many litres can be bought by one client, and many supermarkets are running out of the cooking product. 

One wholesaler consulted by Catalan News were limiting purchases of sunflower oil per customer to 25 litres, while one retailer placed the cap at 5 litres and another placed the limit at 1 litre. 

In the past few days, numerous retail supermarkets have not been able to stock the oil when Catalan News checked.

Economic impacts

Export shortages is just one economic impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Corn is another product that Catalonia imports in significant quantities from Ukraine – 35% of all the corn brought in from abroad comes from the Eastern European nation. Shortages have not yet been seen of corn but a slight price increase has been noted. 

Stores specializing in Russian goods have seen prices increase by around 10% overall, while restaurants have also seen their ingredients go up in cost. 

In the immediate days following the invasion, some Russian restaurants in Catalonia noted a significant drop in bookings.