Market competitiveness of sunflower seed and oil products

Abstract Sunflower seed is one of the most widely traded products in the world, with total trade amounting to 20.36 million metric tons of total vegetable oil production in 2023. Sunflower seed is usually used as a material for cooking oil and food products, biofuel, cosmetics, and other derivates. Due to climate change and the fossil fuel energy crisis in Europe, the need for vegetable oil has increased; one is sunflower oil. Therefore, this research aims to identify the global sunflower market from its largest producing countries. This study uses primer data from interviews in some of the largest producer countries: the Netherlands, Romania, and Poland. Secondary data was also obtained from export data for sunflower-exporting countries worldwide from 2020 to 2021. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix is used for the data analysis to assess the performance of sunflower products in various major exporting countries worldwide. The results of this study show that Romania took the star position with the highest sunflower seed export, around 19.8% of the total economic value of 4.74 billion USD. Ukraine took the cash cow position in sunflower oil, and Turkiye took the cash cow position in the refined sunflower oil market. These positions indicate the dominance of the global market.