The forecast for the sunflower harvest in the EU is being revised downward due to Bulgaria and Romania.

The company for current market information and comparison of key price indices, Expana, has lowered its forecast for the sunflower crop in the European Union as a whole this year by nearly 1.1 million tons from its July prediction to 8.3 million tons due to unfavorable weather conditions in Bulgaria and Romania. If this forecast holds true, the crop will remain below last year's 8.7 million tons when the crops in southeastern Europe were affected by hot and dry weather. The drop in the EU crop is expected to lead to a shortage in the supply of oilseed crops. And this year, the strong heat in southern Europe has damaged spring crops such as sunflower and corn, but it has helped farmers harvest fall crops, including wheat and rapeseed. Expana has increased its estimate for the rapeseed crop in the EU to 20 million tons from the 19.6 million tons predicted in July due to expectations of a richer harvest in France, Poland, Romania, and Hungary. The demand and supply of rapeseed in the ...