Ukraine has almost completed the 2016 sunflower sowing, seeding a total of 5.3 million hectares, 15 percent more than a year earlier, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry gave no explanation for the sharp jump in the sowing area, though analysts and producers have said that farmers are trying to compensate for losses in winter grain with a larger sowing of sunflower and maize.
Poor weather last autumn forced farmers to terminate winter sowing, reducing the planted area by about 10 percent. Ukrainian sunoil producers' union Ukroliyaprom has said that the sunseed harvest could rise to 13 million tonnes this year from 11.5 million tonnes in 2015. It said that Ukraine is likely to increase sunflower oil production by about 20 percent to 5.5 million tonnes in the 2016/17 season because of a better harvest. Analyst UkrAgroConsult said last month that Ukraine could increase its sunflower harvest to 12.4 million tonnes.
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