News
28.08.2012
Turkey: record plans on sunflower seed imports in 2012/13 MY may fail
According to operators of the Turkish market, in 2012/13 MY the imports of sunflower seed to Turkey may again reach the record index of the season-2011/12. In particular, the country expects for the volume of imports of 850-900 thsd tonnes. However, the ambitions of the market operators do not correspond to the potential of the main exporters of the Black Sea region. Despite the desire of the Turkish operators to increase the imports of sunflower seed, the volumes for purchase will be quite small.
In particular, analysts of APK-Inform Agency lowered the August forecast of sunflower seed exports from Ukraine in 2012/13 MY to 100 thsd tonnes, against 300 thsd tonnes of the previous forecast. Besides, in the nearest week experts do not rule out the possibility of a downward adjustment of the oilseed exports from Russia to the level of less than 100 thsd tonnes. The market operators plan to process most of the Black Sea harvest on the domestic market and export the by-products only.
If the pessimistic forecasts of the exports of sunflower seed from Ukraine and Russia are correct, then Turkey will not have any alternatives, but to increase purchases of Bulgarian sunflower. But expectations of the local experts on the exports of sunflower seed from the country remain at the level of 1 mln tonnes. Nevertheless, according to the operators, Turkey may purchase 15-20% of the volumes only.
Taking into account the above-mentioned factors, in 2012/13 MY the imports of sunflower seed to Turkey may actually decrease and total even less than 550 thsd tonnes forecasted in the August report of the USDA.
