Bulgaria’s oilseed harvest drops to decade low

Bulgaria harvested in 2024-25 its lowest oilseed crop in more than a decade because of extremely hot and dry summer conditions that affected yields, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The total oilseed crop including sunflower, rapeseed and soybeans is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes, down from 2 million tonnes a year ago. With crush capacities expanding in recent years to about 5 million tonnes for sunflower and rapeseed, the local crushing industry faces a significant challenge, the FAS said. Bulgaria will need to import larger volumes of oilseeds at a time when the European Union and other suppliers are also in a deficit. As of Nov. 27, the nation had imported 270,463 tonnes of sunflower and rapeseed. “The ability of the Bulgarian crushing industry to continue to produce and export competitively processed products (meals and oils) will be under strain due to growing prices of the raw materials and ...