With a lot of interruptions and delays, the harvesting of the sunflower crop is going on slowly. Still, the news from the farmers are for significantly lower yields – in some regions, the reports are even for 4-5 times lower products than the average level, and this is considered to be a complete disaster. Some areas look better and more promising, but the harvesting hasn’t started there yet, and that is why the news up to the moment are predominantly for poor yields.
There will be a severe shortage of striped sunflower seeds because the planted areas are traditionally quite limited. With the news for the bad yields, it is evident that these seeds will soon disappear from the market entirely, and if any offers remain, they will be costly.
With the black seeds, the situation is not so bad as their yields are higher and also, the planted areas are much more significant than the previous year. Nevertheless, the forecasted volume of 2 million tons will not be reached. It is more likely to expect about 1,5 million tons as the poor yields cannot be compensated with the more significant sunflower areas.
In the coming weeks, tremendous import of sunflower seeds is expected to start from Ukraine and Moldova and some better news from the harvesters as they will begin harvesting the better-looking fields. It is not clear whether this will be enough to calm down the market, but there are some hopes for market stabilisation.