Sunflowers are on track to close another year with record exports, with income that has already exceeded US$ 1.3 billion

The sunflower complex continues to set the course for Argentine agroindustrial exports with a record performance and resultsthanks to a historic harvest and a very demanding international market.

So much so that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries reported today that the “Exports of the sunflower complex achieved the highest performance in two decades in the January-April period”.

According to data from the national portfolio, shipments grew 169% year-on-year in volume up to 2.2 million tons in the first four months, while in value the jump was 60% up to US$ 1,328 million.

“The complex includes oils, seeds and by-products. In this framework, the growth of oil stands out, 69% in volume and 98% in value, de the seed with 1.366% and 1.113% in value and waste with an increase of 73% in volume and 43% in value,” they detailed from Agriculture.

Likewise, they pointed out that Argentina currently exports products from this oilseed complex to about 30 destinations, including India, Bulgaria, Turkey, Chile, the Netherlands, Egypt, Spain, the United States, among others.

The Secretariat explained that “Foreign sales were boosted by historical national production“, the strong international demand and the growth experienced by the Argentine export complex, consolidating the sunflower as one of the main productions for foreign markets in the first months of the year.”

Precisely, the sunflower campaign was extremely historic, achieving record results in each of its indices: area, production, yield and foreign exchange income.

This is indicated in the Sunflower Campaign Closing report published by the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange (BdeC). According to the entity, it “is located in the first position within the ranking of area, yield and production,” while the projected dollar income from exports would reach its best mark in 30 years.

As for the planted areacultivation reached 2.85 million hectares, exceeding the previous maximum by 5.6% (2007/08 with 2.7 million), and 29.5% exceeding the previous campaign.

“This expansion is mainly concentrated in the NEA (+224%) and to a lesser extent in Córdoba and Central-North Santa Fe,” the BdeC specified.

On the other hand, “the crop cycle was accompanied by good water supply from start to finish in the agricultural north and west. However, in the center-east and southeast the water deficit in January and February caused great variability in yields, but on average, close to or slightly above the average,” the stock exchange entity reviewed.

Despite these complications, the national average performance It stood at 23.6 quintals per hectare (qq/ha), exceeding the previous maximum by 0.2 quintals, recorded in the 2024/25 campaign (23.4 qq/ha).

Taking into account the two previous data, the production It amounted to 6.6 million tons, 32% above the previous maximum recorded in the previous cycle of 5 million tons and 60.2% above the average of the last 5 campaigns.

Thus, “the increase in production volume would allow the economic contribution of the sunflower complex in 2026 to grow by 53% compared to the previous campaign, reaching a total of US$ 3,304 million. Gross Product“.

Likewise, it would contribute US$ 757 and US$ 2,491 million in terms of tax collection and exportsrespectively, which represents increases of US$ 268 million and US$ 819 million compared to the previous cycle, numbers never before achieved.