Romania remains the largest producer of sunflower in the European Union. In 2020, the country ranked first in the EU both in terms of production and cultivated area, according to provisional data from the National Statistics Institute (INS), quoted by local Agerpres.

Last year, Romania’s total sunflower harvest decreased due to drought by 1.497 million tons compared to 2019, to 2.07 million tons. Meanwhile, the cultivated area totaled 1.22 million hectares.

According to INS data, next in the ranking of EU countries with the highest sunflower production is Hungary - with a total of 1.749 million tons and a cultivated area of 617,000 hectares, followed by Bulgaria - 1.66 million tons (810,000 hectares), and France - 1.655 million tons (775,000 hectares).

Romania has constantly ranked first in the EU for sunflower crops since 2015, and the seed export potential is significant, taking into account that the domestic consumption needs a total of only 750,000 tons, according to Agerpres.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Woraphon Banchobdi/Dreamstime.com)