Sunflower Industry Supply and Demand is Good
Lorrie Boyer
Reporter
“Last year, we had a really big surge in acres here in the United States after Ukrainian area was invaded by Russians. And so it created a lot more demand for sunflower oil, not just here in the US, but also around the world, US producers were able to take advantage of that. And it just created a situation where we had just a fantastic crop last year and we're still used to some of that seed right now.
He says prices have decreased in the oil seed market.
"One thing that is affecting the whole oil seed market. Brazil had a huge crop this year. And that's really dominating a lot of what's going on around the world right now.
Sandbakken expects us acres planted to sunflowers to be slightly lower this year.
“And that's going to drop back we're gonna probably be about 50% Lower, I think this year than we were last year. It's not not for a lack of demand it just that overall, I think that there's still a lot of seed in the bin from last year's crop. And usually when you get in a situation like that, where you've got a lot in storage, it just sort of tends to get people to back off a little bit of what they're gonna plant, so.”
He expects the 2023 crop will be used up and looks for 2024 to be an aggressive year of building acres up to maintain us sunflower supply. Over the last six years. He points out there has been a 67% increase in domestic sampler usage for mainly snack foods.
