Demand for sunflowers of the new crop of 2024
The demand for new-crop sunflower continues to grow, which is accompanied by news about the state of sown areas and another decrease in the forecast for the production of this oil crop in Ukraine in 2024. This was reported by APC-Inform, according to data published on agronews.ua.
Currently, preliminary prices for sunflowers of the 2024 harvest range from UAH 18,500 to UAH 20,000/t. However, processing companies are refraining from making specific proposals regarding purchase prices due to the current market volatility.
At the same time, some of them predict that in the near future prices may reach 20,000-22,000 UAH/t of CRT or even 23,000 UAH/t of CRT.
Experts note that the main factors that can contribute to the increase in prices are the expectation of a decrease in yields compared to last year, a limited supply of oil seeds and high competition in the domestic market for quality raw materials. Such price support factors may remain relevant even during the period of mass harvesting of sunflowers, as farmers, considering the situation, intend to wait for more favorable prices.
Now more and more regions of the country are joining the sunflower harvesting campaign. So far, mostly the early varieties, which were the most affected by the heat, are being harvested, but the supply of new crop oil seeds remains almost non-existent both on the physical market and on forward contracts.
It is worth noting that in August, the forecast of IA “APK-Inform” regarding sunflower production in 2024 was reduced to 14.2 million tons, which is 3% less than the July estimate and 4% less than the 2023 figure.