Kazakhstan’s sunflower-focused regions could lose up to 30-40% of the sunflower crop due to drought. This forecast was made by the head of the National Association of Processors (NAPMC), Yadykar Ibragimov, at a press conference on 11 August.
“Our experts have traveled to the VKO, Pavlodar and Abay regions – these regions account for more than 60% of the sunflower crop in Kazakhstan. These regions are experiencing drought: during the growing season, there was no rain for 1.5-2 months and the temperature was higher than normal. In this regard, NAPMC has reduced the preliminary estimate of the gross harvest of sunflower seeds in these regions by 30-40%“, – said the head of NAPMC.
Ibragimov noted that this is the NAPMC’s assessment, as official statistics traditionally show inflated figures.
The situation is similar to statistics on oilseed stocks in the country. According to the industry association, by mid-July Kazakhstan had about 260,000 tonnes of sunflower seed residues (of which about 157,000 tonnes were held by oil companies, the rest by farmers and other market participants). At the same time, according to official statistics, by 1 July this year, there were 537 thousand tonnes of this oilseed available (against 420 thousand tonnes on the same date last year).
Source: Apkinform