The European Union (EU) is expecting a sunflowerseed harvest of 9.6M tonnes in 2026, according to the EU Commission (EC)’s latest forecast reported by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Plants and Protein (UFOP).
Based on an expansion of the EU sunflower planted area by approximately 5%, this volume would be a year-on-year increase of 1.2M tonnes year and would be the largest harvest in three years, the 17 April report said.
Sunflowerseed output was expected to increase significantly in Romania, France and Bulgaria.
With a forecast harvest of 2.1M tonnes – a rise of 18% – from a slight expansion in production area to 1.2M ha, Romania was expected to strengthen its position as the largest EU producer.
Climbing to second place among the EU’s largest producers, France was expected to harvest 1.9M tonnes, a rise of around 33% year-on-year.
According to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft, other EU member states were also likely to see significant harvest increases including Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain and Greece.
For Germany, the EC projected an increase in output of approximately 32,000 tonnes to 175,000 tonnes, which would be a new record. The crop area was estimated at 77,000ha, up from 62,000ha the previous year.
“Compared with the major producers of sunflowerseed, Germany continues to play a relatively minor role in the EU,” UFOP said.
“However, the upward revision of the crop forecast reflects farmers’ growing interest in diversifying crop rotation, especially by including an additional summer crop.”
