Nibulon to abandon sunflower cultivation due to losses

«Nibulon» is abandoning sunflower cultivation due to drought and losses. Illustrative photo: Pinterest

This year, the Mykolaiv-based company «Nibulon» harvested sunflower for the last time.

This was reported by the farmer's online assistant «Kurkul».

Next year, the company plans to completely abandon spring crops. The main focus will be on growing winter wheat and rapeseed, which are alternated to preserve soil fertility.

«We received 0.2 to 1.2 t/ha with a payback point of 1.4 t/ha — in fact, we actually lost money. We had to harvest part of the area with grain harvesters», said Oleh Veselov, the company's cluster manager.

According to him, the prolonged drought was the main reason for the loss-making sunflower production, so the company will focus on crops that are more resistant to dry conditions, such as winter wheat and rapeseed.

«The last two years have been challenging for the Mykolaiv region due to a lack of rainfall. We thought that 2024 was a dry year, but 2025 was even more challenging. From the beginning of the year until the harvest, most locations received only 120-140 mm of rainfall. Despite this, we made a profit from wheat and rapeseed. The wheat yield was 3.5 tonnes per hectare, which resulted in about USD 150 of profit per hectare. The main thing now is to get sprouts and at least some moisture. We have already learnt how to deal with pests», said Oleh Veselov.

As a reminder, this year's sunflower harvest in Ukraine is expected to reach 11.4 million tonnes, which is less than the previous forecast of 12 million tonnes. The estimate was lowered due to lower yields in the main producing regions and delays in harvesting due to bad weather. As a result, the 2025 harvest could be the lowest in a decade.