Bulgaria confidently increases sunseed crushing

Sunflower remains one of the most profitable crops in Bulgaria, benefiting from both crushers and exporters demand for sunseed.

However, in Bulgaria sunflower continues to win back areas from less attractive rapeseed and soybeans.

In 2023 summer season (July-August) was unusually hot and dry with extreme temperatures. This affected the sunflower production, which is estimated at only 1.6 M mt in 2023, 23% less than in 2022.

The industry supports the import of cheaper SFS from Ukraine. On the contrary, farmers are in favor of import restrictions.

As a result, from December 2023, Ukrainian SFS imports have been regulated by licenses and export quotas, as well as by a dialog on domestic import needs with the Ministry of Agriculture of Bulgaria.

Bulgaria’s goal is to further shift from sunseed exports to domestic processing in order to increase and diversify exports of value-added products. Oil is considered to be the main export product.