SUNFLOWER MARKET UPDATE

Bulgaria

The summer weather is leaving the country and the autumn is slowly starting with temperature around 15 degrees in Sofia area. Farmers are currently finishing the last part of the harvest, before the rainfall really starts to increase.

September was a very busy month for the Bulgarian farmers and packers. In the first week of September started the first availability of the new harvest and all packers where fully booked this first period. Still now all loading schedules are very tight and new contracts for prompt loading are as good as impossible. Most factories are booked for October and some of them are even sold-out till the end of the year already. Because of this big demand in the market, the prices are getting more under pressure. We saw the price increase the last two weeks by almost +/- Euro 20 - Euro 25. The raw material prices from the farmers are currently on the level of 348-373 EUR / mt. We do expect , after the initial craziness has passed that levels will come down again after Christmas  to between Euro 650 and Euro 700. Due to interesting offers from Russia and Ukraine.

We believe that the market will stay uncertain and busy by the end of the year. Our advise is to cover your needs on time.