Sunflower prices have doubled in the last 12 months, but acreage is expected to drop in the United States and Canada.
Producers would rather grow canola, soybeans and corn, said John Sandbakken, marketing director with the U.S. National Sunflower Association.
Prices for 2010 oil sunflowers have topped $40 per hundredweight, a record high. New crop prices are higher than $30 per cwt., double the $15 per cwt. for new crop last spring.
Demand is pulling the market higher, Sandbakken said.
“The (oilseed) crushers and the bird food buyers have been going head to head and competing very aggressively for the remaining stocks from the 2010 crop,” he said from the association’s office in Mandan, North Dakota. “There’s great demand for the oil and there’s great demand for bird food.”
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North American food processors and snack food manufacturers buy sunflower oil because of growing consumer demand for heart-healthy fats, Sandbakken added.
However, acres are expected to drop in North Dakota, the primary sunflower growing state, as producers opt for other crops, said Sonia Mullally, the association’s communications director.
“How high is high enough to get (producers) to grow them (sunflowe r s)?” she said. “Apparently we haven’t hit that ceiling yet.”
High corn and soybean prices and the ease of growing those crops make it difficult for sunflowers to compete, she said.
Based on U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, oilseed and confectionar y sunflowers in North Dakota will drop to 775,000 acres in 2011 from 850,000 in 2010. Total American acres are expected to fall to 1.8 million from 1.95 million in 2010.
The drop will likely be more severe in Manitoba, where 95 percent of Canadian sunflowers are grown, said Anastasia Kubinec, a Manitoba Agriculture oilseed specialist.
Manitoba farmers planted 135,000 acres last year, but that figure could be cut by half this year.
The drop is partially explained by high levels of sclerotinia in recent years, said Randy Fisher, general manager of Nestibo Agra, a sunflower processor in Deloraine, Man.
However, canola prices are likely a larger factor.
“When was the last time you got $12 (per bushel) for your canola? They’re a lot easier to grow and they (producers) are going to be done with it at the end of October.”
Eighty percent of sunflowers grown in Manitoba are confection types, which normally trade at a premium to oil types. However, confection sunflowers were selling for $28 per cwt. in May compared to $40 per cwt. for oil varieties.
Confections haven’t risen as high as oil types because a larger carryover cooled the market, said NSA executive director Larry Kleingartner.
Manitoba growers might normally switch to oilseed varieties to take advantage of the high prices, but Kubinec said producers have little time for such decisions this spring, given the late start to seeding and wet conditions across Manitoba.
“Right now they’re trying to meet contracts that they have set up for other commodities.”
Fisher said prices for oilseed sunflower varieties will eventually fall.
“The price downturn, it might not happen for a year though, because there’s not many acres going in this year.”
As well, wet conditions this spring in North Dakota could restrict sunflower production, which Mullally said could push prices high.
In Bottineau County, 90 to 100 percent of the sunflower crop won’t go in the ground because fields remain soaked, making seeding nearly impossible, she said.
“And that’s our number one sunflower producing county.”
