Old crop sunflower prices were down 15 cents to unchanged with new crop prices unchanged at the crush plants this week. Traders are beginning to pay more attention to the Black Sea region as an extended period of above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation is a growing concern to sunflower production in the region. Recently, reports noted that there is risk for some crop damage if much needed moisture is not received in the coming weeks. The situation bears watching as Russia and Ukraine are the largest producers of seed and exporters of sunflower oil. The potential reduced availability of sunflower seed and oil production poses risks for global markets and prices will be responsive to potential production shortfalls. This week, USDA issued its initial outlook for 2025 sunflower production and usage for the 2025/26 marketing year. Oil-type sunflower harvested acreage is expected to be 49% higher and non-oil sunflower harvested acres 6% lower than last year. Given the higher oil-type acreage, sunflower seed crush was increased by 64 million pounds to 758 million pounds on higher 2025 production. The other use category (nonoil use and residual) was increased by 145 million pounds to 1.9 billion pounds. Ending stocks are forecast to rise to 254 million pounds, a 26% increase from MY 2024/25 but well below the five-year average. USDA will provide their updated yield and production estimates for sunflowers in October. Follow us on X @NatlSunflower