Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Mar 28 2016

ADM Selects President for North American Refined Oils

Erik Heggen has been named president, North American Refined Oils for Archer Daniels Midland Co. He will oversee the company’s North American vegetable oils refineries and its oils and fats product portfolio in the region. Heggen replaces Ray Bradbury, who was recently appointed president, risk management, for ADM’s Corn business unit. Heggen joined ADM in 2001. He has held key roles in the North American Refined Oils group since 2008.

Reserve Your Room for Summer Seminar

Circle these dates on your calendar and make plans for the upcoming NSA “34th Annual Summer Seminar” scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, June 28-29-30 at the Ramada Hotel in Bismarck, ND. A block of rooms has been reserved at Ramada for June 28-29 under the “National Sunflower Association.” To reserve a room, guests may call 1-800-554-7077. The program is being finalized now and more information will be coming soon. Check the NSA website for further updates. See you in Bismarck!

NSA Scholarship Deadline is This Week

The deadline to apply for the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship is Friday, April 1, 2016. The scholarship is in tribute to the dedicated work of Curtis Stern, an industry advocate and former NSA board member, the NSA Board of Directors established a memorial scholarship in his name. The ND Community Foundation and a committee consisting of NSA members administer the fund. $4,500 is available for award this year. For details and to apply, visit the ND Community Foundation website. Contact Tina Mittelsteadt with any further questions.

Markets

On Thursday, USDA will release its March 1 stocks and US 2016 planted acres by crop reports. Industry members are expecting oil sunflower acres to show an increase from 2015. Confection sunflower acres are expected to be lower than last year. Most private firms look for corn acres to increase slightly, soybeans to be about the same with wheat acres down from last year. CBoT contracts have been more technically driven the past few trading sessions rather than based on fundamental changes. Fresh market news has been limited. Soyoil contracts were given a boost with US export sales and questionable palm oil production but, US soyoil stocks are increasing and the South American basis is getting cheaper, thus the market took back some of the gains. The terrorist bombings in Belgium and its effect on outside markets has also affected the commodity markets. The events in Belgium has led traders to look for safer havens with many looking to the US dollar and financial markets. This has resulted in a strengthening of the dollar making US commodities less competitive in the export market. With the South American soybean harvest moving along at a normal pace it could play into US export demand going forward.