Reuters – Argentina’s sunflower crop could fall below a recent forecast on lower yields and excess rainfall, the capital’s grains exchange said March 17, just when international buyers scramble to secure supplies as the war in Ukraine disrupts the global grains trade.
The last sunflower crop forecast from the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange (BdeC) was 3.3 million tonnes for the current 2021-22 season, already down from a 3.5-million-tonne estimate last year.
Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and its escalating economic fallout have thrown markets into havoc due in part to Russia and Ukraine’s status as leading grains producers, causing record price spikes, which might have been a boon for major alternative producers like Argentina and Turkey.
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Ukraine and Russia are the world’s top producers of sunflowers and its derivatives, in addition to being major corn and wheat suppliers.
Argentina’s sunflower crop is largely processed into sunflower oil and sunflower-soyoil mix, used in a wide range of processed foods.
Argentina is the world’s fifth-biggest sunflower oil exporter, and No. 3 exporter of sunflower seed flour, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The country is also the world’s third-biggest exporter of corn and a top wheat producer.
BdeC warned in a statement that the final volume of production “could be compromised” by low yields in southern Buenos Aires province after too much rain as well as the presence of a phomopsis fungus outbreak.
Argentina produced 3.4 million tonnes of sunflower during the previous 2020-21 harvest, down from a peak of 4.5 million tonnes in 2007-08.
The country is seen exporting 725,000 tonnes of sunflower seed flower and 630,000 tonnes of sunflower oil in the current cycle, according to the USDA.
Earlier this week, the head of Argentina’s grains exporters and crushers chamber CIARA-CEC told Reuters that demand for the country’s wheat and sunflower oil has grown following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
