Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Feb 13 2017

Former Diamond Foods Executive to Lead SunOpta

David J. Colo has been named president and chief executive officer of SunOpta, Inc., a supplier of organic and non-GMO specialty products. He comes to the company from Diamond Foods, where he has been executive president and chief operating officer since 2013. In his role with Diamond Foods, Mr. Colo was responsible for marketing, innovation, R&D, operations, supply chain, procurement, quality, food safety, grower services and contract manufacturing. Together with the Diamond Foods executive team, he was responsible for leading the turnaround of the company and its eventual sale for approximately $1.9 billion to Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. in March 2016. Colo replaces Rik Jacobs, the former president and CEO, who stepped down from the position this past November. Katrina L. Houde was interim president and CEO as the company searched for a replacement. Houde will return to the company’s board of directors, where she has served since 2000.

2017 NSA Gold Award Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2017 NSA Gold Award. Click here for the eligibility and criteria requirements. Nominations must be received by February 17. The NSA board of directors will review all submitted applications and chose a winner. The Gold Award will be presented during the NSA Summer Seminar, set for June 27-29 in Rapid City, SD.

Research Presentations Available Online

If you weren’t able to attend this year’s NSA Research Forum in Fargo, ND, you can still learn about the latest sunflower research. Power Point presentations of all the reports given at the forum can now be found on the NSA website under the “research” tab. Click here to see this year's presentations. For a historical look, all presentations dating back to 2008 are available there as well. Researchers from the Dakotas, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Canada presented a total of 19 papers and 10 posters at this year’s Research Forum.

Markets

New crop sunflower prices are out at the crush plants with cash and Act of God (AOG) contracts available. Something else to consider is the oil premiums that crush plants pay on sunflower. Sunflower is the only oilseed that pays premiums for oil content above 40%. Considering oil premiums that are offered at the crush plants on oil content above 40% at a rate of 2% price premium for each 1% of oil above 40%; this pushes a contract with 45% oil content gross return 10% higher per cwt. USDA released it latest supply and demand report last week. Traders were expecting USDA to have an increase in exports and lower ending soybean stocks. This did not happen as USDA left the numbers unchanged from the January report. USDA also left Brazil's soybean production unchanged despite several U.S. and Brazilian analysts forecasting a bigger number. USDA did lower the soybean crop in Argentina. However, larger crops in Brazil look like they'll more than offset losses in Argentina. Other than the USDA report there wasn’t much in fresh grain market fundamentals. South American weather forecasts remain mostly favorable, and Brazilian soybean vessel loadings for February are expected to continue at a strong pace. This week most of the focus for traders will be digesting USDA's supply and demand report figures and on what's happening in South America.