Romania: Sunseed exports may fall by more than 50% in 2024/25

Over the last ten years Romania became the largest supplier of sunseed among the EU countries. Each year the country meets stable demand from EU consumers, due to high competitiveness of Romanian SFS.

Romanian SFS was also demanded by Turkey. However, SFS exports to Turkey change each year, depending on the domestic SFS production in Turkey and changing import regulation. Anyway, about 80% of Romanian SFS was exported to the EU countries.

Currently, stable SFS production and export in Romania became even more important, as EU countries stopped to import sunseed from russia, which was the largest SFS supplier to the EU. SFS deficit is now covered mainly by Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.

In Oct., European Commission slashed Romanian 2024 SFS production by 1.1 M mt compared to previous estimate.

If we consider the new official estimates, in 2024/25 MY Romania has about 500 K mt of sunseed for exports (-60% y/y), which is comparable to 2009/10 MY. Local market players may face more difficulties this season due to the import limits for Ukrainian origin.