Kazakhstan Increases Oilseed Crop Sown Areas by Almost a Third

The diversification of sown areas continues in Kazakhstan. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, more than 5.179 million hectares were sown with oilseeds in 2026, which is 30% more than last year's figure.

One of the most significant increases was observed in sunflower, the country's main oilseed crop. In the current season, a record 2.202 million hectares were sown with this crop, which is 25% more than a year earlier. Thus, over the past five years, sunflower sown areas have demonstrated steady growth, increasing 2.3 times compared to 2021.

Significant expansion of sunflower areas is noted in the Pavlodar, Kostanay, Akmola, and North Kazakhstan regions, which accounted for 90% of the growth share in the sowing campaign.

In addition, this year saw an increase in sown areas for other oilseed crops — flax, rapeseed, safflower, and cotton.

The National Association of Oilseed Processors notes that the growth in areas is due to high demand for oilseed raw materials from domestic processing enterprises, as well as the expansion of export markets for fat and oil products. The geography of Kazakhstan's fat and oil product exports covers 23 countries in the current season.

Thus, the increase in oilseed crops reflects the ongoing diversification of crop production in Kazakhstan and the strengthening of this group of crops' role in the structure of agricultural production.

Current oilseed processing capacities in Kazakhstan exceed 5.2 million tons per year, of which 4.4 million tons are sunflower processing capacities. At the same time, it should be noted that during the period of 2026–2028, the Republic of Kazakhstan plans to implement large-scale investment projects to construct additional new oil-processing enterprises with a total processing capacity of over three million tons of oilseeds per year.