Bulgaria. The 2024 shortage of sunflower seed increases the crushers’ risks

Bulgaria was SFS exporter, but significant private investment in processing capacity in 2022-2023 turned the country into a sunflower oil and meal exporter.

The main markets for Bulgarian oil are India and South Africa, for sunflower meal – China, Israel and Morocco, and for refined sunflower oil – the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

In 2024, shortage of sunflower seed increases the risks of stable oilseed processing. Many plants are shutting down and/or announcing a further increase in SFS prices. The low SFS harvest in 2024 (1.42 M mt) and the loss of SFS imports from Ukraine, as it was in 2022-2023, leads to a surplus of processing capacity.

The problem is already regional. In Romania, a shortage and an increase in SFS prices are also possible in 2025.