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As a first, Romania takes top spot in EU as for sunflower production
Local agricultural producers were able to gather this fall 1.9 million tons of sunflower seeds, an increase of 60 percent compared to the previous season, the largest amount in all the economies of the European Union .
Romania takes for the first time the position of European leader as for the production of sunflower seeds and the current crop is the largest in history.
Due to the large amounts in the market, prices however fell by 40 percent, but even so the sunflower seeds succeeded to contribute to the economy with about EUR 500 million, according to calculations by Ziarul Financiar. From December 2008 to September 2013, the price of a Floriol bottle of edible oil of one liter went up 7 percent, to RON 6.7, according to an analysis of ZF .
'Sunflower and rapeseed are the most profitable crops, oilseed crops have always been so. Productivity was good to very good this year because of weather conditions, and 2011 was a similar year. I think our farm this year will post an average of 2.8 tons / hectare', explained the Frenchman Arnaud Charmenant, administrator of a 2,500 hectare farm, Tudor 92, in Calarasi (south- east of Bucharest ), with a turnover of EUR 2.9 million.
Farmers were exposed this year with 1.1 million hectares planted with sunflower at the level of the economy , ie 13 percent of all arable land, up slightly from the previous season, according to Cocereal data, a European organization of traders and processors of agricultural raw materials. The total harvest advance was also based on a higher productivity. Thus, if last season the farmers gathered on average 1.3 tons / hectare because of the drought, this fall the results are 62 percent higher.
In the period immediately after the harvesting, the sunflower seeds were sold for about 350 dollars / ton, down 40 percent from the same period the previous season, according to information in the market.