Video posts of supermarket customers wrestling with each other to grab a bottle of vegetable oil have spread across Turkish social media this week.

Turks have scrambled to get to supermarkets to buy sunflower seed oil amid mounting speculation that Turkey might soon run out of the product because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Turkey imports 900,000 tonnes of sunflower seed oil annually, paying around $1bn. Around 65% of it is shipped from Ukraine and Russia and there is no clear picture as yet on how much disruption to supplies will be caused by the war between the two countries and Moscow's response to the 'economic war' that it says Ukraine's allies are subjecting it to.

The Turkish police are probing nearly 50 social media accounts for “provocative” messages posted in relation to vegetable oils. Amid rampant inflation in Turkey, the country’s media regulator RTUK has, meanwhile, warned newspapers, television stations and other media outlets that it is keeping a special eye out for “media coverage of food prices that is misleading and causing panic among the public”.

Newly appointed Agriculture Minister Vahit Kirisci took to Twitter to assure the public that there was and there would not be any shortage of vegetable oil. “All precautions have been taken. Allegations that Turkey does not have enough vegetable oil in its stocks are simply untrue,” said Kirisci, who took office last week.

Sunflower seed oil stocks in Turkey, including those held by supermarkets, will last only until mid-April, according to the Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association. It was statements from this association that triggered the initial vegetable oil panic among consumers. 

The price of sunflower seed oil leapt 54% y/y in February, according to official data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK, or TurkStat). 

The Turkish media in the past week has also relayed fresh warnings from officials that they are paying visits to supermarkets to ensure products are offered to customers rather than kept in storage in anticipation of higher prices driven by surging inflation. Inspectors are also said to be checking prices charged for vegetable oil in particular.

During the acceleration in the collapse of the Turkish lira at the end of last year, there were reports of car dealerships in Turkey reluctant to sell vehicles to customers, fearing prices fetched would soon be rendered unfavourably low to the seller by further lira depreciation.