Nearby prices were unchanged to up 30 cents with new crop unchanged at the crush plants this week. On Friday, USDA will release its latest planted acres report.
In the March intentions report producers indicated they planned to decrease oil acres by 22% with confection acres up 10% from last year. Traders are anxious to confirm if this change in acres occurred or is higher than USDA estimates. Some in the trade think oil sunflower acres will be down by 15 to 20% and confection acres will be up higher than 10%.
USDA’s acreage report will be the main driver in the market following its release. It’s the busiest time of year across the sunflower growing region as farmers finish up planting spring 2023 crops and begin crop protection activities over the next few weeks. Planting is nearing the finish line for sunflowers. As of June 25, 96% of expected 2023 sunflower acreage was in the ground, up from 89% from the week prior and ahead of the five-year average of 91%.
Warmer than normal temperatures have been in place for most of the past six weeks, hastening crop development where it has been a bit behind. Last week in the Dakotas and Minnesota crops received a good drink in most areas giving some relief to parched soils. The long-term weather forecast has above normal chances for rain across the sunflower growing region which will be welcome given how dry some areas are in the northern Plains.
