National Sunflower Association Research to Stay Ahead of Adaptation

The market for US Sunflowers has grown in part to the National Sunflower Association's promotions program, according to Executive Director John Sandbakken.

“We can't take 100% credit for the growth in sunflower consumption here but it is really really grown a lot since we started our promotion program with with food manufacturers. We also continue to work in overseas markets and we're looking for markets that are looking for high grade high quality sunflower oil we have programs in in Canada and Mexico we're looking to expand to Japan this year. For confectionery seeds, we do continue to promote within Mexico, Canada and in Spain. There are main markets but potentially there we're looking also at the market in Korea In South Korea, especially for for using sunflower seeds.”

Sandbakken adds that the National Sunflower Association works to stay ahead of nature adaptation in order to ensure that sunflowers remain a viable crop for us growers.

“Research side of things, we continue to work on the same areas of you know, finding ways to deal with insects with disease. Better agronomic practices are also looking for new chemicals and herbicides and things like that insecticides that growers can use.”

As part of their research program, Sandbakken points out that they work with researchers and scientists across the country to benefit sunflower producers.