Source: Oleoscope (Russia)
Bulgaria exported only 450,000 tons of sunflowers in the first eleven months of the current season. This is 26% less than in the same period of the previous season and 12% less than the five-year average, the news agency Grain On-Line quotes the agroportal as saying.
Sunflower imports also fell from 0.68 million tons to 0.5 million tons in the current season.
Earlier, it was reported that the country’s sunflower seed production fell by 16% to 1.78 million tons in 2023-24. Despite the lower harvest and limited imports, Bulgaria has increased processing of the seed, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).
Traditionally, almost all Bulgarian sunflower exports have gone to countries in the European Union, primarily to the Netherlands and Austria. Turkey is the most important buyer of Bulgarian sunflowers outside the EU.