Sunseed harvest in Russia may decrease by 8.4%

This year, Russia will reduce sunseed harvest by 8.4% to 15.8 million tons compared to 17.25 million tons in 2023, ProZerno CEO Vladimir Petrichenko forecasts. According to him, the decline in production will be caused by a decrease in sown areas and worsening yields due to unfavorable weather conditions.

The sunflower sowing area this year is 9.7 million hectares, compared to almost 9.9 million hectares in 2023.

Vladimir Petrichenko also anticipates that soybean production this year may increase to 7.2 million tons from 6.824 million tons last year. The area under this crop has increased to 4.23 million hectares from 3.7 million hectares in 2023. However, soybean yields are expected to be lower.

The increase in planted area, even if yields fall slightly, will boost rapeseed harvest to 4.3 million tons from 4.203 million tons a year earlier. The area under rapeseed rose to 2.3 million hectares from 2.1 million hectares respectively.

The oilseed flax (flax-cudder) crop is also projected to increase this year and could reach 1.27 million tons, up from 1.153 million tons in 2023. This will happen due to the expansion of sown areas to 1.51 million hectares and higher yields. At the same time, Petrichenko noted that these forecasts are still approximate, as the data on crops will be refined.

According to Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Russian Oil and Fat Union, the forecast for the total oilseed crop is more than 29 million tons. Weather conditions at the end of April-May have already made their adjustments, taking into account the reseeding of sunflower and soybeans instead of dead grains, the seed crop is expected to be approximately at the level of last year, and for rapeseed, soybeans and oilseed flax the increase in total compared to last season will be about 0.6 million tons.

Tags: soybean, sunseed, rapeseed, crop forecast, Russia