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 […]
In Germany, UFOP reports that the EU Commission expects sunflower seed output to grow due to yield increases, even though there is a slight reduction in EU sunflower area. Especially Romania and Bulgaria are expected to see higher yields. According to figures just published by the EU Commission, the 2017 sunflower area in the EU-28 […]
In North Carolina, the Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility is farming 1,000 acres to use up the biosolids produced from its wastewater treatment facility including sunflowers that are grown for biodiesel feedstock. The oil seeds will be processed on site using a mobile biodiesel facility brought in by an 18-wheeler. The project’s first sunflower-for-biodiesel harvest will take […]
In Hawaii, Pacific Biodiesel is preparing to harvest its first 14-acre sunflower crop later this month using a biodiesel-powered combine and has just planted its second tranche of the 115-acre oil seed crop that should bloom in about two months. The project scales up the company’s oil seed production operations trialed under a collaboration with […]
In Hawaii, Pacific Biodiesel’s sunflower crop intended for trialing biodiesel production on the island has become so popular that people are regularly trespassing and sometimes even stealing the flowers that are currently in bloom despite obvious signage about the farm being private property where no trespassing is allowed. The state police has been recruited to […]
In Hawaii, Pacific Biodiesel is trialing various biofuel crops including sunflowers on a 115 acre test site on Maui, a project that is not related to the parent company of C&H Sugar that recently closed down sugarcane operations and looked to sunflower as a potential alternative crop. More details on the community-based project are to […]
In Germany, UFOP reports that despite a reduction in sunflower area, sunflower production in the EU-28 picked up from the previous year. In particular, the extensive production in Hungary accounts for the growth. According to current estimates, the 2016 production of sunflowerseed will likely outstrip the fairly average 2015 output. Although the area planted with […]
In California, Iteris has added growth models for sunflower and sorghum crops into its digital agriculture platform, ClearAg. According to the USDA, sunflower seeds are one of the five largest oilseed crops with about 40 million metric tons produced in the world annually. Most sunflower seeds are crushed for oil while far fewer are roasted […]
In Germany, UFOP is reporting that “prices for rapeseed oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil converged in July 2016”. Whereas soybean oil and sunflower oil were on a sluggish trend due to abundant supply of feedstock, the price curves for rapeseed oil showed a slight upward trend. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI), oil mills […]
In Germany, UFOP is commenting that the sunflower area in France, the EU’s fourth biggest producer of sunflowers, will likely be significantly smaller than expected. Consequently, the EU Commission could reduce its previously positive area forecast to project negative figures for 2016. UFOP notes: “France apparently suffered significant losses as heavy rains caused flooding. The […]
