Ukraine’s 2025 sunseed harvest seen rising 6-8%, analyst Inform says

Ukraine’s sunflower seed harvest may jump by 6-8% in 2025 thanks to a possible 5% rise in next year’s sowing area, analyst APK-Inform said on Monday.

Ukraine is a major global sunseed grower and sunflower oil exporter.

The consultancy said that the “current pricing situation in this sector” was the main reason for the higher outlook.

APK-Inform said last week that indicative export prices for Ukrainian sunflower seeds continued to rise, adding another $15-$30 per metric ton over the past seven days and reaching $505-$535 on a Carriage Paid To (CPT) basis as of Nov. 6.

Ukraine has almost completed the 2024 sunseed harvest, threshing 9.6 million metric tons of the commodity from 95.2% of the planted area as of Nov. 8.

“The expansion of the area can be mainly due to the planting of soybeans, which in most cases did not show the expected yields due to both weather conditions and sowing in in regions that are not entirely favourable for it,” APK-Inform said.

It noted that in line with preliminary forecast, in 2025, the area under soybean production is likely to decrease in 2025 by 7% to 10% and the harvest by up to 5%, depending on weather conditions.

APK-Inform has said the 2024 soybean harvest rose by 8% to 5.9 million tons.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Jan Harvey and Louise Heavens)