Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) decided to ban sunflower seeds export before June 30, 2020. It plans to apply special license policy to sunflower seeds export from July 1 to Aug. 31.

Slepnev, a trade commissioner of EEU, said the special export license system is to establish reserve to guarantee grain safety under the background of COVID-19 among many countries, leading to higher demand of international grain market. Before the new harvest season, EEU must guarantee demands of internal sunflower seeds market and prevent from supply shortage. In recent years, members of EEU have established larger sunflower oil capacity. Therefore, risks such as inventory backlog and sharp decrease of raw material price are impossible. In the meantime, where as Russia is the largest exporters of international sunflower seeds market, the application of special export license policy helps promote EEU to expand sunflower seeds processing and finished products export scale.

The Authorized Department of EEU said special export license policy requires exporters to issue license document to customs department of relevant member countries while exporting sunflower seeds to regions outside the union. The license document shall be issued by authorized department of EEU members according to procedures regulated by law.