Global sunflower-seed harvest projected to rise 8% in 2023-’24

The International Grains Council projects a global sunflower-seed harvest of 54.8 million metric tons in 2023-’24.

This would be a rise of 8 percent, or 4 million tons, from the current season.

The main reason for the projected growth is anticipated yield increases, which are seen to return to near-average levels following heat-related disappointing results in 2022.

According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), this especially applies to European production.

More specifically, EU-27 sunflower seed output is expected to rise 1.1 million tons on the previous year.

Notwithstanding uncertainties due to the war, the IGC expects Ukrainian production to increase 1.5 million tons to 13.5 million tons.

Russia is seen to harvest 15.8 million tons (up 0.8 million tons).

The IGC projects the U.S. sunflower seed output lower than in 2021.

By contrast, China is not expected to see any significant changes in production.

The IGC has pointed out that the crop forecast is quite vague at this point because sowing campaigns have not even started in the most important sunflower seed-producing countries.

The projection for Ukraine is particularly difficult to make, because a significant part of the traditional production area is located in the currently embattled regions.