Bearish Week For Sunflower

VANCOUVER - Aug 16/14 - SNS -- Birdseed ingredient markets were mainly unchanged in seasonally light trade during the past week.

Oil-type sunflower was weaker in sympathy with canola and soybean markets. That reflects the belief in markets that last week's yield estimates by the USDA were conservative and the final tally will be higher.

Commenting on the situation, the U.S, based National Sunflower Association said, "The collapse in world vegetable oil prices led by lower palm oil futures offered resistance to CBoT soyoil values all week. Malaysian palm oil futures slid to near a five-year low this week following losses in overseas soy markets.

"The lack of El Nino has put traders into a mindset that there could be a global glut of vegetable oil next marketing year and the bearishness of the market is reflecting this. With world vegetable oil and US soyoil prices on the defensive all week, this spilled over into high oil bearing seeds such as sunflower."

The association added, "Old crop sunflower prices lost 70 to 75 cents per cwt this week. New crop also had a down week losing 95 cents to $1.10 per cwt after trading finished on Friday. Given the price decline in other commodities, especially soyoil values, it was probably inevitable that sunflower prices would follow."