Russia faces a serious sunflower harvest failure

Russia faces a serious sunflower harvest failure: according to the forecast of SovEkon analysts, the harvest of this crop in 2020 will amount to 11.8 million tons, which is 23% less than last year. As a result, the harvest may be the lowest since 2017, when 10.5 million tonnes of oilseeds were harvested. The fall in the harvest will lead to a rapid rise in prices, analysts say.

The main reason for the poor harvest is unfavorable weather conditions, primarily in southern Russia: a dry spring there was replaced by a dry summer, which caused significant damage to sunflowers. "The state of crops in the region, according to our assessment, is the worst in at least the last ten years," says the message of SovEkon.

The company's experts predict that the sunflower harvest in the south (in the South and North Caucasian Federal Districts) will fall by a third, to 3.3 million tons. A production cut is also expected in Central Russia and the Volga region.

Against the background of a sharp deterioration in the species for the new sunflower crop in Russia and Ukraine, also severely affected by the drought, SovEcon does not expect a noticeable seasonal decline in domestic prices.

"In the near future, sunflower quotations in Russia will most likely begin to grow at an explosive rate," the report says.

The average price for sunflower on the Russian market at the end of last week amounted to 22.575 thousand rubles per ton (excluding VAT), follows from the monitoring of SovEkon. According to experts, "in the near future" the price increase will be at least 20%.