Argentina to harvest largest sunflower crop in 30 years, increasing competition for Black Sea sunflower oil

According to USDA forecasts, in 2026 Argentina will harvest the largest sunflower crop in the last 28 years – 7 million tons thanks to the increase in the area sown, especially in the north of the country. Harvesting has already begun and will continue until the end of April. So far, 5 million tons of sunflower have been threshed from 62% of the area, compared to 3.5 million tons last year, which indicates a high pace of work and high yields. Preliminary data on threshing allowed USDA analysts to increase the yield estimate by 0.3 t/ha to 2.33 t/ha, which will correspond to last year's figures.

According to Oil World, in March, Argentina exported 202,000 tons of sunflower, indicating a high rate of shipments.

In total, in 2026, the country has already exported 620 thousand tons of sunflower (compared to 11 thousand tons for the same period in 2025), of which 283 thousand tons went to Bulgaria, almost 100 thousand tons to Turkey, 77 thousand tons to Romania, 53 thousand tons to Portugal, 22 thousand tons to France, 20 thousand tons to Spain and the Netherlands each. At the same time, part of the cargo intended for Turkey may actually be sent to Romania.

Thanks to increased processing volumes, exports of sunflower oil from Argentina in March increased compared to the corresponding figure last year from 119 to 175 thousand tons, and sunflower meal - from 117 to 174 thousand tons. It is expected that the total volume of processing in the current season will reach a record 5.5-6 million tons, which will increase competition with Black Sea oil on the world market.

Increased sunflower production and processing in Argentina may increase pressure on sunflower oil prices, which at the beginning of the year were trading on the Indian market at a discount of $30/t compared to Black Sea products.