Sunflower markets end the week mostly unchanged

NuSun prices ended the week unchanged to up 5 cents with high oleic prices unchanged to up 25 cents at the crush plants. Delivery after the first of the year might be something to consider if you have available storage. Premiums of 25 to 50 cents per hundredweight, depending on the month, are being offered at the North Dakota crush plants for later delivery. Sunflower harvest continues to slowly move along in the U.S. Most states are trailing the five-year average harvest pace per U.S. Department of Agriculture. Wet and below normal cold weather continues to hamper harvest progress in the largest production area of the Dakotas. Seed quality remains generally very good at this time. However, the longer the crop remains unharvested the more susceptible it will be to harvest and quality losses. Many producers are harvesting the crop and drying it to get to acceptable moisture levels for storage or delivery to processing plants. The United States, Canada and Mexico signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a week ago and should return market certainty to these export markets for producers. Canada is the largest export market for U.S. sunflower oil and sunflower kernel. Mexico is the second largest export market for in-shell seed and kernel. Because it was a renegotiation of NAFTA, opening all chapters, USMCA will have to be approved by Congress, and the earliest it would likely be brought up for consideration would be March 2019.