Sunflower harvesting has begun in Ukraine, and it is already becoming apparent how much the July heat wave has affected this year's crop. Production companies, in particular PROMETEY, which sowed significant areas with sunflower, have already felt the effects of unfavorable weather conditions. Chief agronomist of the company Ilya Troitsky says - sunflower harvest this year will be noticeably smaller, but still do not panic. Such vagaries of weather are cyclical. There have been worse.
"Yes, 2024 was an unfavorable year for sunflowers and for late spring crops in general. However, can it be considered extraordinary? In my opinion, no. We should remember the last leap year 2020, which was more severe than this year. Should farmers panic and shout about climate change? Again - no, because fluctuations in precipitation and temperature, despite the changes in the planet's climate, which certainly take place, may be favorable for farmers in the next few years. Moreover, even this year there will be regions where the sunflower harvest will be at the level of average annual yield. For example, the north-western districts of Nikolaev region have good sunflower development, especially with medium-late sowing dates (the first decade of May)".
PROMETEY has sown about 6 thousand hectares of sunflower this year. In Vradiyivskyi and Voznesenskyi districts there was a lot of precipitation before the drought, so the harvest there is expected to be good, but in Bashtanskyi district sunflower burned all July, so there will not be much to harvest. However, the drought has not only hit Ukraine. And this fact can help Ukrainian agrarians to avoid losses.
"The drought has affected not only Ukraine, but also the entire South-East of Europe - territories where significant sunflower growing areas are concentrated. A significant increase in the price of this product is expected. Therefore, some of the agrarians can win and get significant profits even with yields of 2-2.5 tons per hectare. We are counting on it," says Ilya Troitsky, PROMETEY's chief agronomist.
PROMETEY expects that the price of sunflower of the new harvest for export may reach UAH 23,000 per ton. In Ukraine, the price will fluctuate within 14,400 hryvnias per ton. However, it is difficult to give a more accurate forecast, as the price is influenced by many factors: the situation on the world market, the availability of the "grain corridor" and domestic conditions, such as power cuts, which affects the production of oilseeds.
