Sunflower markets

The price discovery period for crop insurance for sunflower ended on Feb. 28. The 2020 price elections for sunflower will be announced later. The price election for oil type sunflowers is expected to be around $16.90 with confections at $22.60 per hundredweight. A smaller 2019 U.S. sunflower crop and good demand are supporting old crop NuSun and High Oleic prices which ended the week unchanged to up 15 cents at the crush plants. New crop prices are beginning to drift lower as producers sign 2020 production contracts. Interest in sunflower production has been very high and producers are taking advantage of the attractive prices being offered by crushers and confection processors. Despite the recent price downturn, new crop sunflower prices are still penciling out well. Chicago Board of Trade traders continue to anxiously await new Chinese purchases to materialize after the signing of the phase-one trade deal. China continues to battle the coronavirus outbreak, which has impacted soybean import needs. Some market analysts think the export surge from the trade deal will take several months to become visible with the potential to extend into this fall because of the outbreak. South America continues to make good harvest progress and weather conditions are favorable for producing a record soybean crop. In the week ahead CBoT traders will continue to weigh the coronavirus impact on U.S. export demand and South American production prospects.