Because of lowering price, farmers in Central Brazil have been seeking viable alternatives to corn as a second crop following soybeans, and farmers are increasingly turning to sunflowers. Farmers in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso planted 119,000 hectares of sunflowers for 2013/14, or 2.3 times the 50,700 hectares planted the previous year according to Conab’s latest assessment. The state of Mato Grosso accounts for 85% of the country’s sunflower acreage and production for the state equals 178,000 tons. Mato Grosso began producing sunflowers for bird seed approximately 10 years ago but upon the establishment of the Parecis Alimentos sunflower crushing plant six years ago, production of sunflowers for oil production began. The crushing operation has been so successful that it is currently expanding its crushing capability. The high costs of transporting sunflower seeds held back production expansion. Because of sunflower seed’s light weight compared to their volume, transportation costs for long distances were prohibitive. Sunflower oil however, can be transported as economically as soybean oil, so once the processing facility became operational, farmers began increasing sunflower acreage, and production expansion is expected to continue in the state.
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