ProAgro Information Company prepared a complex research “Ukraine: Sunseed and Products Market”.
Ukraine is an important and even the key player in the world market of sunflower and its by-products. Ukrainian leadership is mainly based on large areas planted with this crop. Thus, in MY 2007/08 Ukrainian share in world sunflower plantings was 16%.
In 2008, sunflower harvested area and production were the largest for the last 20 years, and the yield was the highest for the period of Ukrainian independence.
Sunflower production is not distributed evenly over the territory of Ukraine. A large part of production is concentrated in the east and the south of the country. In 2008, the largest producing regions were Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia Oblasts.
It should be noted that in recent years the trend has been evident toward the increase of organized sunflower producers’ share. According to official data for 2008, agricultural enterprises harvested 81% of the total harvest in Ukraine, i.e. 5.3 million tons of sunflower. It exceeds the previous year production by 57%.
One can trace an indirect dependence of a yield amount on the size of the harvested area. In 2007, 15% of enterprises received average sunflower volume of 1-4 thousand tons. Gross yield exceeding four thousand tons was received by 47 enterprises in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv regions. Kharkiv and Donetsk producers received the largest harvest exceeding 20 thousand tons.
The main advantages of sunflower seeds have always been high production profitability and their liquidity. The usage of new varieties is growing. But the most popular sunflower varieties grown in Ukrainian fields are Svitoch and Titanik.
Along with the production issues in general the new research prepared by our company – “Ukraine: Sunseed and Products Market” – covers a range of issues that concern sunflower as the key feedstock for the fat-and-oil industry.
