Sunflower stocks see downward movement

USDA recently released its March 1 stocks and U.S. 2018 planted acres by crop reports. USDA predicted far fewer acres of corn and soybeans will be planted this year than industry analysts had estimated.

Some private estimates had 2018 soybean acres in a range of 90-92 million acres. USDA pegged planted acres at 89 million surprising everyone. Most traders think it is doubtful soybean acres will end up this low given previous surveys and seed sales to date. Sunflower growers intend to plant 1.39 million acres in 2018, down 1 percent from 2017. Area intended for oil type varieties, at 1.24 million acres, is up 2 percent from 2017. Area intended for non-oil varieties, estimated at 150,000 acres, is down 20 percent from last year. These figures can change based on planting and market conditions in the coming weeks. This is just a first look at this year’s potential sunflower acres. USDA will issue a follow up report on June 29 with actual planted acreage figures. According to the stocks report, all sunflower stocks stored in all positions totaled 1.24 billion pounds, down 8 percent from 2017. Oil sunflower stocks are 1.05 billion pounds, down 2 percent from last year. Non-oil sunflower stocks of 191.0 million pounds, are down 33 percent from a year ago. Trading for the next few weeks will be driven by the reports released a week ago as each crop competes for 2018 acres.