Sunflower markets

Anxiety over a rise in global coronavirus cases a week ago sparked a selloff that started in the stock markets and quickly worked its way through other commodities such as soybeans and corn. Sunflower prices followed the trend of lower commodity prices to some degree. Nearby NuSun prices at the crush plants were mixed at up 15 to down $0.05, with high oleic down $0.05 to unchanged a week ago. 2021 new crop was down $0.05 to unchanged. Several recent snow events in parts of the Dakotas and Minnesota tamped the brakes on harvest progress for a few days. Sunflower harvest progress was moving at a rapid pace before the snow. Despite the snow, harvest did advance 10% to 64% complete for the week ending Nov. 1. Harvest progress remains 10% ahead of the five-year average. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 158,000 acres pushing 2020 harvested acres to about 985,000 acres. Harvest progress remains about one week ahead of the five-year average and four weeks ahead of last year at this same time. The USDA Risk Management Agency is expected to announce harvest prices for 2020 revenue insurance policies for sunflowers. The harvest price has risen to where it will take a yield loss to trigger a crop insurance payment. Harvest price per pound for oil-type sunflowers is $0.176 cents and confection sunflowers at $0.236 cents. Spring prices were $0.169 cents for oils and $0.226 cents for confections.