PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. – Prairie sunflower growers were encouraged last week to think about planting more NuSun varieties.
Oil from NuSun varieties is now in demand in the United States, especially in the snack food industry. The oil is used mainly for frying snack foods, such as potato chips.
“We need more NuSun,” said David Chang, senior engineer of product development for Procter and Gamble. “We don’t have enough supply right now. We’re worried.”
Chang was speaking at the annual meeting of the National Sunflowers Association of Canada. His company makes all its Pringles potato chips using NuSun oil.
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NuSun sunflowers produce an oil 20 percent lower in saturated fats than traditional sunflowers. Also, NuSun oil requires no hydrogenation, a process that adds shelf life to competing oils but creates trans fatty acids. Saturated fats and trans fatty acids worry health-conscious consumers.
Ed Campbell of Archer Daniels Midland predicted that all oilseed sunflower varieties grown in the United Sates could be NuSun within three years. A third of the oilseed sunflowers grown in North American this year were NuSun, Campbell said.
“There’s an increasing demand for an oilseed like NuSun,” he said. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for an alternative crop.”
This was the first year NuSun varieties were planted in Manitoba, which leads sunflower production in Canada. About 2,000 acres were seeded.
One factor slowing adoption of NuSun in Canada is the market. The nearest crushing plant for oilseed varieties is Fargo, North Dakota.
“We can grow (NuSun) and we gladly would, but right now the distance is the killer,” said Rob Park, Manitoba Agriculture oilseed specialist.
“Whatever premiums are associated with it get eaten up in freight.”
Mel Reimer, executive director of the National Sunflower Association, expects to see an increase in NuSun acreage in Manitoba next year. That increase will be driven partly by the overall trend toward more sunflower production in the province.
But NuSun is gaining a higher profile in the sunflower industry, said Reimer, and growers here might one day be able to get a premium for growing it.
“We do need to see more committed to NuSun because that market is going to grow.”
