Sunflower seed market in Russia steadily heading for records

The Russian sunflower seed market is going to break some records in the new season 2018/19, whereas last marketing year did not fully meet growers’ expectations. Although the planted area expanded by more than 5%, the final yield was down almost 4%. The situation was aggravated by weather conditions at the end of harvest, when part of crops got covered with snow. As a result, almost 10% of plantings were written off.

Meanwhile, despite the crop decline, Russian sunflower oil exporters managed to set a new record in the 2017/18 season due to high sunseed carryovers, lower sunseed exports and a decrease in closing sunoil stocks.

According to UkrAgroConsult’s estimates, the 2018/19 sunflower seed crop in Russia will hit a new high at the expense of an acreage expansion along with a record yield for Russia.

Sunflower seed crush will increase; sunflower seed exports will also grow slightly.

In the long-term (until 2024), Russia’s agriculture faces the task of raising oilseed production and processing – this includes doubling the sunflower seed crop.