Minister: Romania produces ten times more sunflower seeds than it needs

Romania produces enough sunflowers every year to cover ten times the need for domestic consumption, Sorin Moise, the secretary of state in the Ministry of Agriculture, said on Saturday, addressing concerns about the availability of basic food goods after the war in Ukraine started.

He said there were enough stocks of this product and raw material for oil production.

"Romania produces enough sunflowers every year to cover ten times Romania's need for oil consumption. Last year, for example, we had a record production of three million tonnes. Romanians consume annually edible oil produced from a quantity of 200,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds," the state secretary said in a press conference, G4media.ro reported.

While it produces enough sunflower, Romania has limited processing capacities, therefore, it exports most of its crop. Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary and Asian or Western European countries such as the Netherlands, France and Spain were the main beneficiaries of Romanian production.

But Romania is losing USD 1 bln every year because it does not turn the whole amount of sunflower seeds harvested into oil, Pro TV estimates. Out of almost 20 large oil mills in 1990, Romania has only five left.

With over one million hectares cultivated with sunflower, Romania was last year the largest producer of such seeds in the European Union.

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