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Sunflower oil more and more expensive: German farmers react

2022-05-27T07:18:32.105Z


Sunflower oil more and more expensive: German farmers react Created: 05/27/2022, 09:05 By: Lisa Mayerhofer A sunflower field in summer: In Brandenburg, farmers are increasingly cultivating sunflowers. © McPHOTO/ImagesBox/Imago Sunflower oil has been in short supply for months - and is in great demand. Farmers in Brandenburg have now reacted. Teltow/Munich – Some astonishing scenes have taken


Sunflower oil more and more expensive: German farmers react

Created: 05/27/2022, 09:05

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

A sunflower field in summer: In Brandenburg, farmers are increasingly cultivating sunflowers.

© McPHOTO/ImagesBox/Imago

Sunflower oil has been in short supply for months - and is in great demand.

Farmers in Brandenburg have now reacted.

Teltow/Munich – Some astonishing scenes have taken place in German supermarkets in recent months, because many Germans rushed to the increasingly scarce and expensive sunflower oil.

But restaurateurs and manufacturers are also struggling with the lack of sunflower oil and the increased prices for cooking oils.

The fast-food chain McDonald's, for example, has already reduced the proportion of sunflower oil in its vegetable oil mixture for deep-frying fries.

Sunflower oil: Farmers are increasingly cultivating sunflowers

"Ukraine is the world's most important supplier of sunflower oil," says a spokesman for the Association of Oilseed Processing Industries in Berlin.

More than half of the global exports of sunflower oil come from the Eastern European country.

In Ukraine, so-called crude oil has so far been produced from sunflower seeds and shipped across the Black Sea, exports have come to a standstill because of the war.

"This will not improve in the foreseeable future."

Germany obtains 94 percent of its sunflower oil needs from imports, only six percent is obtained from domestic production.

Sunflower cultivation tends to be a niche activity in Germany.

That could now change: According to a survey by the Brandenburg State Farmers' Association among its members, some farmers are reacting to the current demand for sunflower seeds and are dedicating areas that were originally planned for other purposes - such as corn - to sunflower cultivation.

“We cannot remotely compensate for the war-related supply gaps with sunflower seed from the Ukraine.

Even if we are the largest producer of sunflower seeds in Germany with around 13,000 hectares of cultivation area.

Nevertheless, our farmers are reacting to the increasing demand and are increasingly cultivating sunflowers," said Henrik Wendorff, President of the Brandenburg State Farmers' Association,

Merkur.de

.

Sunflowers in Brandenburg, oilseed rape in Bavaria

Expanding the cultivation of sunflowers is not that easy: there is a lack of arable land in Germany.

In addition, the cultivation requires a certain machine technology for sowing and harvesting.

In addition, sunflowers are susceptible to rot and fungal attack if there is too much moisture in the harvest phase.

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In the southern state of Bavaria, on the other hand, the potential for cultivating another yellow-flowering plant that can also be used to produce cooking oil would be high: rapeseed.

"The cultivation of sunflowers places high demands on the climatic conditions of the location," said Dorothea Hofmann, an expert at the Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture.

Things are a little different with rapeseed: “The area under cultivation could be expanded.

Crop rotation limits or similar restrictions have not yet been reached here," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture.

But even in this case, domestic cultivation does not offer a serious alternative in the short term.

All the same, farmers who managed to grow rapeseed or sunflowers this year can look forward to good price prospects.

This could result in increased cultivation of the plants.

The Ministry of Agriculture explains this very simply: "If the farmer can earn more money with the cultivation of sunflowers than with other crops, the area under cultivation will increase accordingly."

(lma/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-27

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