2019 EU sunflower crop falls short of 2018 levels
In Germany, UFOP reports that the yield forecast for the EU-28 is an average of 22.9 decitonnes per hectare, a drop of 5 percent or1.3 decitonnes per hectare below 2019 levels. Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft reports that Slovenia, Romania and Spain are projected to see the sharpest decline in yield, of 12 per cent on average. Nevertheless, Romania is expected to bring in the largest harvest. At 3.2 million tonnes, sunflower production is likely to exceed the previous year’s output by 0.2 million tonnes. In contrast, Bulgarian output is seen to remain almost unchanged from the previous year at 1.9 million tonnes. Although it has the third largest sunflower area, Spain only ranks fifth of EU sunflower producers, with an output of 0.8 million tonnes due to below-average yields.
The country is outranked by Hungary and France, which are forecast to produce 1.8 and 1.3 million tonnes respectively. The total EU harvest in 2019 amounts to 9.95 million tonnes, which is only down 0.2 per cent from 2018. UFOP noted that the unfavorable growing conditions in 2019 primarily affected winter crops. The productivity of summer crops, such as sunflowers, was less impaired. The drought in spring was sub-optimal for germination, but it allowed farmers to sow the seed timely. According to information published by the EU Commission, the total EU area sown with sunflowers amounts to 4.4 million hectares. This translates to a 5.5 per cent rise from 2018. The five-year mean was also exceeded by 3 per cent. The largest sunflower areas are in Romania (1.3 million hectares), Bulgaria (0.8 million hectares) and Spain (0.7 million hectares).
Category: Fuels
