Due to the increase of the planted areas and high yield figures, in 2018 Moldova produced the record harvest of sunflower seed, which totaled 950 thsd tonnes, against 920 thsd tonnes in 2017 (up 36% y-o-y), which also became a new peak in the whole contemporary history, declared the Commercial Director at Trans Oil, Tamaz Jhashi during his report within frames of the international conference Middle East Grains & Oils Congress in Cairo, Egypt, on March 12.
In Moldova, the agricultural land areas total nearly 66%, or 22.2 mln ha of the general areas of the country, as well as 1.5 mln ha of the areas are directly used for cultivation of crops. At the same time, the share of planted areas under sunflower seed in the country totals 24%, which exceeds the same figures in Ukraine (17%) and Romania (10%), T.Jhashi said.
According to the speaker, for 10 recent years Moldova increased the planted areas under sunflower seed in 1.5 times — to 362 thsd ha. Various experts estimated the limit of the indicator for the country at 400 thsd ha.
Also, for 2 recent years the yield of sunflower seed in Moldova exceeded the same figures in Ukraine. Thus, in 2018 the average yield of the oilseed in Moldova totaled 2.6 t/ha, against 2.3 t/ha in Ukraine. The trend developed, because Moldavian agrarians are able to significantly expand the planted areas under sunflower seed, and mainly rely on increasing of its yield, T.Jhashi said.
It is expected that in 2019 Moldova will harvest 924 thsd tonnes of sunflower seed throughout the areas of 330 thsd ha, with the yield of 2.8 t/ha.
Generally, the country processes 34% of produced sunflower seed, as well as exports 66% of the volumes. Trans Oil processes 90% of the reporting share of 34%, and already became the absolute leader on the domestic market, and also exports 99.5% of the general shipment volumes of sunflower oil from Moldova. The list of major export destinations includes Turkey with the share of supplies at 51.5%, Romania (40.7%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Poland (0.1%), and other countries (2.2%), the speaker added.
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