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Sunflower prices at the crush plants are unchanged this week. The market is bracing for production delays and other consequences if workers at ports on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast strike. About 40 percent of U.S. containerized agricultural exports move through the East and Gulf Coast ports. The impact on the supply chain will quickly reverberate throughout the agricultural economy, shutting down operations and potentially lowering commodity prices if the strike takes effect. The impact is more significant on the import side, especially for products from Europe. Today USDA released its latest grain stocks report. USDA pegged old crop sunflower stocks in all positions on September 1, 2024, at 575.3 million pounds, up 57 percent from a year ago. All stocks stored on farms totaled 139.1 million pounds and off-farm stocks totaled 436.2 million pounds. Stocks of oil type sunflower seed are 507 million pounds; of this total, 133.7 million pounds are on-farm stocks, and 373.3 million pounds are off-farm stocks. Non-oil sunflower stocks totaled 68.3 million pounds, with 5.3 million pounds stored on the farm and 63 million pounds stored off the farm. Stocks of oil type sunflower seed were 49 percent higher than last year. Non-oil stocks were up 166 percent from last year. Both figures were within average industry estimates. On October 11, USDA will give its first estimate of 2024 US harvested sunflower acres and total seed production.
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