# Holiday Lull in Asia Weighs on Vegetable Oil Markets, While Ukraine Prices Rise

> Lunar New Year holidays in China and other Asian countries slowed vegetable oil trade, with some trading paused while prices stayed mostly stable. China cut import VAT on 16 agricultural categories, including sunflower and rapeseed oil, from 13% to 9% starting February 2. Ukrainian sunflower oil demand prices rose $10-20/t to $1,280-1,290/t delivered to ports.

- Date: 2026-02-18 · published 2026-02-18T12:00:00.000Z
- Category: trade · region China · magnitude low
- Page: https://feedsoft.ai/events/20715-holiday-lull-in-asia-weighs-on-vegetable-oil-markets-while-ukraine-prices-rise
- Commodities: [Soybean Oil](https://feedsoft.ai/c/SBO.md), [Sunflower Meal](https://feedsoft.ai/c/SUNMEAL.md)

## Why it matters

The China VAT cut could lift import demand for vegetable oils once the holiday ends, supporting prices, while the holiday lull is temporarily bearish.

## Read by commodity

- SBO: bullish ▲
- SUNMEAL: bearish ▼

## Similar past events

| Commodity | Date | Event | 5-day % | 20-day % |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SBO | 2026-05-26 | [US buying and vegetable oil price rallies push month-on-month…](https://feedsoft.ai/events/19399-us-buying-and-vegetable-oil-price-rallies-push-month-on-month.md) | +2.8% | -2.8% |
| SBO | 2023-10-11 | [Lower sunflower seed prices in the EU and Ukraine](https://feedsoft.ai/events/33750-lower-sunflower-seed-prices-in-the-eu-and-ukraine.md) | +5.1% | -0.7% |
| SBO | 2020-06-01 | [Palm oil scales near two-month high as May exports rise - Markets - Business Recorder](https://feedsoft.ai/events/52489-palm-oil-scales-near-two-month-high-as-may-exports-rise-markets-business.md) | +2.8% | -0.7% |
| SBO | 2020-08-19 | [Palm oil climbs to highest in over a week - Markets - Business Recorder](https://feedsoft.ai/events/51735-palm-oil-climbs-to-highest-in-over-a-week-markets-business-recorder.md) | +1.3% | +10.6% |
| SBO | 2017-10-10 | [Ukraine: European buyers increase bid prices for soybean oil – Business World](https://feedsoft.ai/events/68547-ukraine-european-buyers-increase-bid-prices-for-soybean-oil-business-world.md) | +1.7% | +5.2% |

## Sources

- proagroukraine.com: https://www.proagroukraine.com/en/holiday-lull-in-asia-weighs-on-the-vegetable-oil-market-while-prices-rise-in-ukraine/

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Data from Feedsoft AI (https://feedsoft.ai/). For information only; not investment advice.