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Global sunflower seed production in the 2024/25 season is expected to fall to its lowest level in four years, according to International Grains Council (IGC) data cited by Germany's Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP).
According to the IGC's latest estimates, global sunflower seed output will reach around 50.1 million tonnes in the current season, 100,000 tonnes below the previous forecast.
This represents a 12.4% decline compared with the 2023/24 season and would be the smallest crop harvested in four years, according to the report published on 5 March.
Output from the three largest sunflower seed producers – Russia, Ukraine and the European Union – is expected to post sharp declines compared with the previous year, according to IGC data.
Ukraine's crop is currently forecast at 13 million tonnes, a 21.2% drop from the previous year's output.
In Argentina, where harvesting was under way at the time the report was published, extreme heat and drought reduced yields in the country's key sunflower-producing regions, prompting the IGC to cut its forecast by 100,000 tonnes compared with the previous month.
Even so, about 90% of the crop was still rated in good or excellent condition as of mid-February, according to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft.
As a result, Argentine production was expected to reach 4 million tonnes in the 2024/25 season, up 2.6% from the previous season.
Estimates also pointed to a smaller-than-previously-forecast US crop, with output expected at around 500,000 tonnes – half the previous year's 1 million tonnes.
Source: Al Mal Forum