Turkish sunflowerseed output in the current marketing year is forecast to drop to its lowest level in almost a decade due to extremely dry weather conditions in a key production region, according to a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report.
According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)’s Turkey: Oilseeds and Products Update, drought-like conditions were most prevalent in the northwestern part of Turkey, where more than half of the country’s sunflowerseed production is located.
In the 2 October report, the USDA reduced its sunflowerseed production forecast for the 2024/25 marketing year by 300,000 tonnes to 1.25M tonnes due to yield-related losses resulting from extreme dry weather in the northeast province of Thrace.
“Production hasn’t been this low since the 2015/16 marketing year. Farmers from Thrace are reporting yield losses of up to 50% compared to the long-term average,” the 2 October report said.
“Meanwhile, growing conditions in other major sunflower producing areas in the centre of the country appear to be normal and production levels in these locations are expected to be in line with historical averages.”
As a result of the anticipated production shortfall, the USDA increased Turkey’s sunflowerseed import total by 100,000 tonnes to 550,000 tonnes, up from 380,000 tonnes in 2023/24.
“The increase in sunflowerseed imports is not expected to completely offset the decline in production because of Black Sea suppliers’ preference to ship value-added sunflowerseed meal and crude oil,” the USDA said.
Turkey ranked sixth globally in sunflowerseed production in 2023/24 with a volume of 1.55M tonnes, according to a World Grain report on 8 October.
