Sunflower Seeds – Bulgaria:
Compared to the previous season the sunflower seeds crop is estimated to increase by 360.000 MT to 1.94 million MT. The increase is due to a slightly increased yield of up to 2.4 MT per hectare and an expansion of 55,000 hectares to 810,000 ha in total.
Current summer dryness in Central and Eastern Europe could have an impact on the quality in terms of seed size or moisture according to market participants. Harvesting is expected to start slowly during the next 10 days.
There is a competition between the big oil crushers, traders and processors for raw materials because farmers are reluctant to sell in anticipation of better prices. First sales activities in order to assure raw materials have been noticed. The possible impacts of the continuously increasing production capacities of oil crushing mills in the Black Sea area should be noticeable.
The prices were on a historical level. The vegetable oil notifications are already increasing despite the positive forecast of the new crop. We recommend purchasing now for the mayor demand of your total volume.
Sunflower Seeds – Romania:
The sunflower seeds harvest is estimated to increase by 186,000 MT up to 1.97 million MT in comparison to the last season.
This increase will be owed to a substantial rise in the crop yield from 1.2 MT / hectare to 1.95 MT / hectare and an expansion of the acreage from 35,000 hectares to 1,010,000 hectares in total.
Harvesting is expected to start late in August -early in September, which is in average 10-14 days earlier than usual.
Sunflower Seeds – Russia:
The estimate of the Russian sunflower acreage has changed the most. The planted area for sunflower kernels increased by 547 thousand hectares up to 7,400 thousand hectares.
This area is below the record acreage of the 2011 / 2012 season with 7,614 thousand hectares. In the most positive case this change might lead to an estimated total yield of 11 million MT. New investments in growing crushing capacity were observed.
Sunflower Seeds – Moldova:
Moldovan farmers have decreased the sunflower sowing area by 10 % for the new harvest of 2016 / 2017. This was caused by an essential increase in sowing material prices.
Despite the reduced sowing area farmers expect a higher harvest volume of up to 450,000 million MT in comparison with 350,000 million MT in the previous season due to the very good crop development this year.
Sunflower Seeds – Ukraine:
According to official announcements 5.9 million hectares were planted with sunflowers in the season 2016 / 2017.
The sunflower seed output is estimated to increase by 1.6 million MT up to 12.8 million MT compared to last season.
Ukraine has turned into the leading world market supplier of sunflower oil and is set to remain in this position for the coming seasons. Almost all sunflower seed produced in Ukraine is crushed domestically. Growing crushing capacities have been noted.
Sunflower Seeds – EU-28:
The major producing countries of sunflower seeds in the EU have increased there planted area for the season 2016 / 2017 with cultivation in Spain, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. France will have to expect a decline in the planted area due to adverse weather conditions. This scenario leads to an increase of 1 % of the area in the EU as a total.
Sunflower seed yield is estimated to increase by 927,000 MT reaching up to 8.6 million MT in comparison to the last season. Still below the record crop in 2014 / 2015. Compared to the previous season the total acreage increased by 143,000 hectares to 4.3 million hectares.
All EU-28 states expect either flat or growing crushing volumes. The EU domestic demand for sunflower oil is expected to be very favorable, with consumption estimated at 3 percent higher and at the highest level for the last three seasons.
Spain, Germany, Hungary, United Kingdom, Romania and Portugal expect higher food usage of sunflower oil compared to 2015 / 2016.