Sunflower Highlights

Post Date: Dec 04 2017

Mark Jirik Hired as Director of Northern Crops Institute

The Northern Crops Institute (NCI) has hired Mark Jirik as director. Jirik replaces Mark Weber, who is retiring from NCI in December 2017, and has served as director for six years. Jirik holds a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University. He has more than 17 years of experience in commodity merchandising and commercial management at Cargill.

Arca Continental Acquires Deep River Snacks

Arca Continental, parent company of Wise Snacks, has acquired Deep River Snacks. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With annual sales of approximately $45 million, Deep River, Conn.-based Deep River Snacks manufactures premium better-for-you snacks, including kettle cooked potato chips, baked crisps, popcorn and Honchos organic seasoned tortilla chips. The company’s product portfolio is made with non-G.M.O. ingredients, certified gluten-free, vegetarian, kosher, nut-free and cooked exclusively in sunflower oil. Arca Continental, which is also the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America, will add Deep River Snacks to its portfolio of U.S. snack brands, including Wise Snacks, Si Senor and La Abeja. Arca is also the parent company of Bokados snacks in Mexico and Inalecsa snacks in Ecuador.

Registration is open for the 2018 NSA Research Forum, scheduled for January 10-11, 2018 at the Delta by Marriott in Fargo, ND. Click here to register online now for the early bird price of $130. Registration will increase to $145 on December 29, 2017.

Seed Quality

High Plains	2017	2016
Oil Content	39.0%	40.8%
Foreign Material	6.2%	6.3%
Moisture	8.2%	7.5%
Test Weight	28.4 lbs	30.4 lbs
Northern Plains	2017	2016
Oil Content	42.4%	43.5%
Foreign Material	3.7%	4.5%
Moisture	9.5%	9.0%
Test Weight	29.9 lbs	30.5 lbs

Markets

Adequate seed supply led to very quiet trading this week. Sunflower prices at the crush plants ended the week unchanged to up 5 cents. Birdfood prices held steady as well. Sunflower harvest is getting close to wrapping up in the US. Most states are equal to or slightly ahead of the five-year average harvest pace per USDA. In the past week, producers harvested an additional 70,000 acres pushing 2017 harvested acres to 1,176,380 acres. This represents 94% of this year’s projected harvested acres and is about equal to the five-year average. Soyoil traders received disappointing news when the EPA maintained the status quo in setting final quotas for how much refiners blend into gasoline and diesel. The mandate was set at 15 billion gallons for conventional renewable fuels (ethanol) for next year and at 2.1 billion gallons for soy based (bio-diesel) fuels in 2019. Bio-diesel producers were hoping for quotas near 2.5 billion gallons. With harvest wrapping up in the Northern Hemisphere attention will continue to be more focused on demand news and to South America's oilseed production prospects. For most commodities producer selling will likely slow down given current pricing unless storage is an issue with the hope of a rally occurring later this year or early 2018.