The FAO's Vegetable Oil Price Index rose 23% on-month to a record high in March.
Ukraine accounts for four-fifths of sunflower exports, but the war has caused massive disruption in the supply of sunflower seeds.
There is "limited scope for raising production and exports of other oils and fats to offset the shortage of supplies from the Black Sea," Oil World, an oilseeds trade news and research outlet, wrote in March 25 release.
The supply disruption in sunflower seeds has driven up prices of competing oilseeds used to make cooking oil, as importers shifted to buying soybeans, oil palm, and rapeseed.
Volatile oil prices — which surged to 14-year highs on the back of the Ukraine war — also pushed up vegetable oil prices as the oilseeds are used to make biodiesel for transport fuels, per the FAO.
Outside of Ukraine, weather concerns are contributing to price gains in wheat as the La Nina weather phenomenon is expected to cut this year's harvest from Brazil, the world's top soybean producer, S&P Global reported last week, citing the country's national agricultural agency.