Ukraine may plant up to 6 mln ha of sunflower in 2023, compared to 5.5 mln ha in 2022. The preliminary government forecast was 5.6 mln ha.
This was discussed at a briefing by Denis Marchuk, Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council.
Farmers will prefer oilseeds due to higher profitability. At the same time, less corn is expected to be planted due to higher costs for this crop. According to forecasts, most sunflowers will be planted in the South of Ukraine.
This year's possible increase in crop areas will be driven by a number of factors, the main one being the rising sunflower price due to the restraint of sales by farmers.
In pre-war 2021, the area under sunflower crops was approximately 6.9 mln ha.