Manitoba farmers will probably follow a great sunflower production year with more acres this spring, says a major marketer of the crop.
“We feel fairly confident that we’ll have a bit of an increase in confectionary acres,” Ben Friesen of Legumex Walker said during a marketing panel at the Manitoba Special Crops Symposium.
This year’s expected 60,000 acres of confecs will be one-third higher than 2012’s acreage, but the crop has seen wild swings in acreage as farmers grapple with price and disease.
Sclerotinia devastated production in 2009 and 2010, destroying the value of crops throughout the Red River Valley and in western Manitoba.
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Many farmers were turned off and acreage fell, but two good years have changed their minds. Hot, dry weather helped sunflowers yield well with high quality.
Legumex Walker is offering confec contracts for 32 cents per pound and 25 cents for oilseed types.
U.S. farmers prefer oilseed sunflowers, but Manitoba’s industry has traditionally focused on confectionary production.
Friesen said oilseed sunflower production should remain steady, at about 45,000 acres this spring.
He said the biggest marketing challenge for Manitoba confec sunflower seeds is the fact that most production there uses round varieties while the lucrative markets of the Middle East prefer the long type seed.
Manitoba growers have few good variety choices, but the disconnect between the main type grown and the best export market’s desire creates headaches.
“The biggest challenge in marketing is to get the right variety to the end user out in the Middle East and those areas where most sunflowers are being shipped to in the world market,” said Friesen.
