Bulgarian farmers have decided to increase the sown area under sunflower

The increase in the needs of Bulgaria's processing industry and the decrease in sunflower imports will stimulate farmers to restore sunflower acreage in 2024, Svitlana Kupreyeva, an oil market analyst at UkrAgroConsult, expressed this opinion. So, in 2023, the sunflower sowing area was 6% smaller compared to the previous year. The limiting factor for area expansion was the drop in prices under the pressure of large sunflower stocks due to high imports from Ukraine. At the same time, the yield was 18% lower, and the gross harvest was 23% lower. In the January balance sheet, an increase in sunflower imports (+100,000 tons) is expected compared to the previous forecast due to the lifting of restrictions on imports from Ukraine and the implementation of the export licensing mechanism from Ukraine, Kupreyeva added. At the same time, she predicts that domestic sunflower processing will reach the level of last season, and the export of sunflower oil will increase by 20,000 tons. The ...