Sunflower markets

USDA released its planted acres report recently. Area planted to sunflower in 2020 totals 1.54 million acres, up 14% from 2019. Harvested area is expected to increase 18% from last year to 1.47 million acres. Compared with last year, growers in six of the eight major sunflower-producing states increased sunflower acreage this year. The state with the largest increase from last year is North Dakota, where planted area increased 85,000 acres compared with last year. South Dakota is also showing a large increase compared with last year, with planted area up 82,000 acres from the previous year. Planted area of oil type varieties, at 1.37 million acres, is up 15% from 2019, and harvested area is expected to increase 18% from last year to 1.32 million acres. Planted acreage of non-oil varieties, estimated at 170,500 is up 11% from last year. Harvested area is expected to increase 24% from last year to 158,000 acres. USDA slashed its estimate for 2020 corn acres from a March outlook for 97 million acres to 92 million, with the trade’s expectation of 95.14 million. Soybean acres, meanwhile, jumped to about 83.8 million, up from 76.1 million a year earlier but not far from the originally forecast 83.5 million and trade expectations for 83.5 million. With the release of the USDA report, the key to oilseed prices going forward will be U.S. summer weather and demand news.