Sunflower seed harvest forecast down significantly in EU due to hot and dry weather

In Germany, UFOP reports that in its latest monthly estimate, the EU Commission cut its outlook for the EU sunflower seed harvest substantially. Whereas in June, production was still estimated at just over 9 million tonnes, the forecast was reduced to 8.7 million tonnes in July. This would be up 33,000 tonnes from 2016, but down around 0.3 million tonnes from the previous month’s estimate. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI), the harvest for France was forecast slightly higher than the 2016 crop. However, the surge cannot offset the decline projected for the Romanian, Bulgarian and Spanish harvests. Although sunflower area rose 1.3 per cent from the previous year, sunflower output will probably only grow 0.4 per cent in 2017. The reason is excessively hot and dry weather conditions in parts of southern and eastern Europe in June, which had a significant negative impact on crop yields.