According to agribusiness expert Iurie Rija, at the moment a significant number of market operators in Moldova are looking for opportunities to sell large – from several hundred to thousands of tons – batches of last year’s sunflower. It will not be easy to find favorable options.
Demand for sunflower on the part of local processors will probably appear not earlier than in the fall. At the moment, according to Logos Press, Floarea Soarelui SA, the country’s largest oil and fats plant, is preparing to start the new season with rapeseed processing for the first time in a decade and a half.
The situation for Moldovan farmers and traders is aggravated by the fact that the marketable remains of last year’s sunflower in neighboring Ukraine are very large, estimated at 2 million tons. Sunflower production in Russia this year, according to the forecast of the Russian Union of Oil and Fats Producers, will increase from 31.6 million tons (in 2024) to 33.8 million tons. And according to the forecast of the U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA world production of sunflower in the season 2025-26 will increase by 4.3 million tons – up to 56.2 million tons. The largest increase is expected in the Black Sea region.
