Sunflowers.

[Vatman]

With Ukraine responsible for 46% of the world`s sunflower oil is there anything stopping Thailand attempting to ease the shortage caused by the Russian invasion. We grow 3 crops of corn a year here in the lower north but I'm thinking sunflowers would grow just as easily & much more profitably. Has anyone had experience of growing sunflowers here? Is there an established market here?

[Will B Good]

As an aside............I see UK food manufacturers are 'panicking' and looking for either alternate suppliers or alternatives to sunflower oil.

[farmerjo]

I grew them about 6 years a go on a couple of rai.Easy to grow.

Didn't end up selling as the family thought it was to difficult to remove the seeds from the heads manually but the big corn shop where we bought the seeds would buy them.

I think for memory member Wayned had a sunflower front for his John Deere harvester.

Personally i don't think the price will go up here for sunflowers that much.

The middleman will just make more.

Soya beans or sesame might be better value oil seeds here in Thailand if the Thai government tries to offload more palm oil on the export market.

 

 

[kickstart]

Yes they are grown a lot  in our area Lopburi/Saraburi  ,grown after maize ,as FJ said a compilable crop ,the combine can be modified for sunflowers.

Biggest problem is the cost of the seed about 500 baht/kg ,easy to grow ,require no spraying .little fertilizer ,a good point  with the price of the stuff, from growing to harvest about 100 days .

Before harvest pidgins are a problem ,I have seen a flock of a few hundred birds land on a crop ,farmers use bangers fired from a catapult to scar them off ,but they soon come back again .

The price this year was  25 baht/kg down a bit from last year  some money is made, but  again as FJ said, like most crops the middle man makes the most .

Your problem would be a market ,this area is geared up for sunflowers someone just growing a few  rie in another area  would have a job finding a local market ,no middle man  wants just a few ton ,he has to find a buyer ,you could ship them to another area, ie ours,but haulage would take out most of the profit .

Apparently,   most of the sunflower seed you buy from gift shops etc come from China.

[CLW]

Main problem, as KS described, is the missing market and infrastructure. You'll need good seeds, a suitable drill, combine harvester for sunflowers, probably drying silo, a buyer etc...

Sesame or soybeans might be better. Depending where you are, there is a huge corporation LACO growing green soybeans (Edamame) around Chiang Mai, processing them and sell domestically and for export

[kickstart]

8 hours ago, CLW said:

Main problem, as KS described, is the missing market and infrastructure. You'll need good seeds, a suitable drill, combine harvester for sunflowers, probably drying silo, a buyer etc...

Sesame or soybeans might be better. Depending where you are, there is a huge corporation LACO growing green soybeans (Edamame) around Chiang Mai, processing them and sell domestically and for export

You are right ,about the market ,the seed has to be used with in a year ,after a year germination drops a lot ,as for drilling ,sunflowers are one of Thailand's successes  the seed  use to be almost ploughed  ,with a 7 disc plough and seeder ,resulting in a very uneven crop now they are direct drilled using a maize drill ,I think they still use the same plates as for maize, straight in to the field following maize ,this way a lot more  even crop ,and I am certain a higher yield ,and a lower cost ,drilling is cheaper than a Ford 6600 and seeder

As for drying ,sunflowers are grown, as I said after maize ,normaly about November time by the time they are in flower rains have stopped ,they dry in the heads with no problem I would say harvested at about 20% moisture .

Combine harvesters are no problem the same machine as maize ,just a different head .

Sesame seed dose work we grew it once ,harvesting is the problem , the crop can not be combined ,they are cut by hand then stooked up ,and the local mobile  thrasher trashes the seed out .

Cutting and stooking cost s about 6-700 baht/rie ,the thrasher charges 200 baht /sack,one sack weighs about 90 kg.

 

 

[Elkski]

We are buying the cha Cha brand (Thailand)of processes flavored seeds in our US Asian market.  2.99$ for I think 8 oz. The coconut flavor is good but I should stop buying them because I just read  Artificially flavored.  

[Gulfsailor]

Palm oil yield is 3 to 4 times higher per acre than sunflower oil. There is a good reason why everyone around the tropics are growing oil palm.

[kickstart]

18 hours ago, Gulfsailor said:

Palm oil yield is 3 to 4 times higher per acre than sunflower oil. There is a good reason why everyone around the tropics are growing oil palm.

Farmers grow palm oil as it is used in a variety of thing some me and  you will not know, and they are different beasts,  palm oil comes from a palm ,which takes 4 years to produce any fruit ,and has a high set up costs .

Sunflowers 100 day for, a crop used mainly as a cooking oil ? low set up costs as has been said a combine is used for harvesting. 

[CLW]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:29 PM, Gulfsailor said:

Palm oil yield is 3 to 4 times higher per acre than sunflower oil. There is a good reason why everyone around the tropics are growing oil palm.

Oil Palms shouldn't be grown in the north and northeast of Thailand (even if the government and some shady middleman tell you) due to climatic constraints.

Other oil crops such as sunflower or sesame can be grown in the north and northeast, which is Thailands main agriculture area in terms of field crops and a good addition to the odd rice crop in many areas

[Gulfsailor]

6 hours ago, CLW said:

Oil Palms shouldn't be grown in the north and northeast of Thailand (even if the government and some shady middleman tell you) due to climatic constraints.

Other oil crops such as sunflower or sesame can be grown in the north and northeast, which is Thailands main agriculture area in terms of field crops and a good addition to the odd rice crop in many areas

That would work if the local demand is high enough because no exporter is shipping sunflower oil from Asia to Europe as that would add 500 dollars per ton at current extreme shipping rates. 

[CLW]

27 minutes ago, Gulfsailor said:

That would work if the local demand is high enough because no exporter is shipping sunflower oil from Asia to Europe as that would add 500 dollars per ton at current extreme shipping rates. 

Correct, it's already hard for sunflowers and sesame for domestic use or processing to compete with the cheap imports from Russia or China.