Argentina will harvest the largest sunflower crop in 30 years, which will increase competition for Black Sea sunflower oil.

According to USDA forecasts, in 2026 Argentina will harvest the largest sunflower crop in the last 28 years – 7 million tons due to the expansion of sowing areas, especially in the north of the country. Harvesting has already begun and will continue until the end of April. Currently, 5 million tons of sunflower have been harvested from 62% of the area compared to 3.5 million tons last year, which indicates high work rates and good yield. Preliminary data on the harvest allowed USDA analysts to increase the yield estimate by 0.3 tons/ha to 2.33 tons/ha, which will correspond to last year's indicators. According to Oil World, in March Argentina exported 202 thousand tons of sunflower, which indicates high shipment rates. In total, in 2026 the country has already exported 620 thousand tons of sunflower (compared to 11 thousand tons in the same period of 2025), including 283 thousand tons to Bulgaria, almost 100 thousand tons to Turkey, 77 thousand tons to Romania, 53 thousand tons to ...