According to Rosstat, at the end of March, the stocks of sunflower seeds in the agricultural organizations amounted to 871 thousand tons against of 1.06 million tons on the same date in 2017. Most significantly — by 31% to 247 thousand tons — stocks decreased in the Central Federal district. Including in the Belgorod region remains decreased in 3.4 times, in Tambov — 46%, in Kursk — almost 40%. In the southern Federal district, which accounted for almost a third of the sunflower crop in the country, the decline amounted to 15%, by 1 April in the farms, there were 320 thousand tons of seeds against 377 THD. MT in the previous year. In the Volga Federal district reserves decreased by 13% to 210 thousand tons, including 2.6% — in Bashkortostan and in 1.9 times — in the Saratov region. The excess residues in comparison with last year's figure was recorded only in the Siberian and North Caucasus Federal districts, which are not the main producing regions of sunflower in the country (the share of each country in the collection of about 6%).

According to the forecast "Sovekon", in April and may you can expect a serious reduction in sales of sunflower seeds, especially in the regions with the greatest decrease in reserves. "The more fit the period of mass sowing of sunflower, farmers will first consume the sunflower seeds, but will sell what is left after planting", — experts say.

Problems with raw material base for the production of sunflower oil will be observed until the harvest of this year, adds the General Director of the Institute for agricultural market studies (IKAR) Dmitry Rylko. "Inertia is the production and export of sunflower oil this season has been very rapid, which is not consistent with the current harvest. However, we must remember that our country has this season started with a very high margin oil from last season and the first few months was a huge export volumes of oil that actually belonged to the crop of the previous season. And we think that in the coming months, exports will decline and at the end of the season it will be lower than in the last marketing year," said Rylko. At the same time, he expressed the hope that the harvest of sunflower in 2018 will be higher than last year. "Unfortunately, this year due to weather conditions there is a delayed sowing, but I hope that in the coming weeks, the situation is equalized, and sowing of sunflower and maize and sugar beet will be held in a regular mode", — said Rylko.

According to Rosstat, the gross harvest of sunflower seeds in 2017 decreased by 4.8% to 10.5 mln t. At the same time, sunflower oil production for the first half of the season 2017/18 (September-February) increased by 4.2% to 2.6 million tons of sunflower oil Exports for six months of the crop year amounted to almost 1.2 million tonnes, which is 17% higher than last year, follows from the data of the FCS. According to the forecast of IKAR, at the end of the season will be produced about 4.2−4.3 million tons of sunflower oil, 8% inferior to last season. Exports of sunflower oil will decrease by 12% to 1,9−1,92 million tonnes.

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