Bulgaria’s oilseed harvest drops to decade low

Bulgaria harvested in 2024-25 its lowest oilseed crop in more than a decade because of extremely hot and dry summer conditions that affected yields, according to a report from the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The total oilseed crop including sunflower, rapeseed and soybeans is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes, down from 2 million tonnes a year ago.  

With crush capacities expanding in recent years to about 5 million tonnes for sunflower and rapeseed, the local crushing industry faces a significant challenge, the FAS said.

Bulgaria will need to import larger volumes of oilseeds at a time when the European Union and other suppliers are also in a deficit. As of Nov. 27, the nation had imported 270,463 tonnes of sunflower and rapeseed.

“The ability of the Bulgarian crushing industry to continue to produce and export competitively processed products (meals and oils) will be under strain due to growing prices of the raw materials and depressed prices of the processed products, leading to very small, or even negative, margins,” the FAS said.

Crush capacities likely will be underutilized for a third consecutive year.

“While the crushing industry needs liberal trade and import regimes due to the deficit, farmers keep pressuring the authorities to continue to limit imports,” the FAS said.

Rapeseed production is estimated at 175,000 tonnes, a 15% drop from last season. The sunflower crop is estimated to also drop 15% to 1.5 million tonnes, despite a higher planted area.