The area planted to sunflowers for seed in the USSR has remained relatively stable during 1973-1975 at about 4.7 million hectares. Production of seed reached a record 7.4 million metric tons in 1973 but declined to 6.8 million last year. Drought, moth damage, and cutting of some acreage for silage probably has reduced the 1975 sunflowerseed crop to an estimated 5½ to 6 million tons. This is a fourth below the 7.4 million tons planned for 1975. In order to keep crushing capacity fully utilized, because of the shortfall in sunflower seed production, the Soviets reported an interest in soybean imports of about 1½ million metric tons in 1975/76. Based on our estimates of the 1975 sunflower crop and Soviet crushing capacity, this is probably the maximum volume the USSR could effectively handle in 1975/76.
