SOFIA, BULGARIA — Bulgaria’s sunflower seed and rapeseed production is forecast to rise in marketing year 2021-22 over the previous year due to good weather conditions, according to a Global Agricultural Information Network report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA projected 2021-22 sunflower seed output at 2.015 million tonnes, a 16% increase over last year’s total. It also sees this year’s rapeseed crop increasing by 28% over the previous year to 360,000 tonnes.

“As of mid-July, the rapeseed harvest was 46% complete with reported yields exceeding earlier estimates,” the USDA said.

The report noted that 2020-21 exports of rapeseed and sunflower seed are currently lagging behind the previous season due to the shorter crop and growing domestic crush demand. The USDA estimates Bulgaria exporting 200,000 tonnes of rapeseed and 800,000 tonnes of sunflower seed in 2020-21.