USA, 7/31/2001

CROP STATUS

USDA's Weekly Crop ratings for sunflower dropped slightly from theprevious week. It was a combination of droughty conditions in parts ofKansas and west central South Dakota and hail and heavy rains in parts ofNorth Dakota that lowered the ratings. More rain this week in most of thedroughty areas should help to revive the crop. However, very heavy rainsin some of the already wet areas of North Dakota will likely have anegative impact on the crop there. Sunflower is now in the stage whererain and wet conditions can be a detriment. Much of the crop isapproaching the bloom stage.

MARKETS

Weather is the big player at this time of year. Each weather forecast canimpact the direction of the market on a specific day. The weather focus isthe heart of the soybean and corn country. August is the critical monthfor soybean yield determination and the market is likely to be especiallyvolatile during the next 20 days. The world vegetable market is beginningto heat up. The market is at levels not seen in the past two years. Thereare projections in some quarters that prices may continue to rise. Palmoil production is beginning to slip due to a cyclical nature of the trees.Malaysian palm oil stocks are now under last year's levels. Oil WorldWeekly (July 27, 2001) is hinting that palm oil values could exceed worldsoybean oil prices by the end of the year. Should that happen, sunflowerprices would certainly benefit. With already short worldwide sunflower oilsupplies, prices would be certain to follow the world market higher.