Bright, heavy heads of confectionary sunflowers are standing tall in
Manitoba fields, which should have growers feeling sunny about the future.
Prices for confectionary sunflowers are strong, even as prices for
most other crops have been falling. And their outlook is even better.
“Confecs are a nice change from the rest of the crops,” said Tim
Petry of Dahlgren Ltd., a Minnesota sunflower contracting company.
“The confectionary market looks very strong.”
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Prices for confectionary sunflowers are about 25 cents US per pound.
That’s a good price and a big premium over oilseed sunflowers, which
are bringing bids of about 13.5 cents per lb. Usually the spread is
four to five cents.
“The oilseeds seem to be tied to the commodity markets,” said Petry.
“This year, you really have to differentiate between a confectionary and an oil for crush more than we ever have had to before.”
Big on-farm and commercial stocks are hurting oilseed prices and
little change is expected soon, according to the market report at the
National Sunflower Association.
“The sunflower crushing pace will be slow through September as
crushers use up their 2008 inventory and wait for new crop deliveries,”
said the report.
“The oil crush market will not be aggressive bidders for immediate delivery until the October-November time frame.”
Consumer demand for confectionary sunflowers has stayed strong, so companies are aggressively buying them.
A good crop is in the fields of Minnesota, the Dakotas, Manitoba, Colorado and Kansas, but it’s a race against time.
“They all have one thing in common,” said Petry. “They’re behind schedule.”
He estimates that crops need until the end of September until they are free from the threat of a killing frost.
Sunflowers are tough in the face of frost compared to most crops, but can still be damaged if temperatures drop low enough.
Petry said confectionary types should also provide farmers with
smiles through the winter, because he thinks the present price will
continue until the end of 2009, and new crop prices will also be strong.
“We’re going to be very aggressive with new crop 2010 contracts.”
