Ukraine produces sunflower seeds most of measures and in the greatest quantity, which is followed very closely by Russia country.
The United States of America is the world's tenth largest producer of sunflower seeds, with the majority of production occurring in the states of South Dakota and North Dakota.
The seeds are cultivated in areas with cooler weather for two reasons: first, sunflowers may be grown within a short growing season, from June to September; second, the harsh winters in the Dakotas keep pests and diseases at bay.
The sunflower is a strategically significant oilseed crop in Ukraine, which plays a key role in the agricultural sector and accounts for 70 percent of all oilseed crops farmed.
The sunflower also plays a key part in the agricultural sector of the United States.
Ukraine is in the top place when it comes to the production of sunflower seeds around the world, accounting for 25 percent of total output, followed by Russia (22 percent) and Argentina (9 percent).
In addition, approximately 57 percent of the world's total exports of sunflower oil are produced in Ukraine (State Statistics Service of Ukraine).
The sunflower is the most profitable crop farmed in Ukraine, with mean profitability of 51 percent (as a percentage of net profit from total production expenses) for the period of 1996-2012 (Figure 2), and profitability of 20 percent during adverse growing seasons.
As a direct result of this, the total sown area has been steadily growing from year to year.
One of the benefits of sunflower is that its seed oil yield is significantly higher than that of other oilseed crops, averaging 750 kg ha-1 across the country.
This is one of the reasons why sunflower is so popular.
Processing of sunflowers and production in Ukraine Sunflowers are grown in greater quantities in Ukraine than anywhere else in the globe.
Before the year 2000, the production of sunflowers was less than 3 million metric tons (Fig. 3).
But in the decade following 2000, production climbed by a factor of three, going from 2.8 million mt to 8.4 million mt in 2010.
This has been accomplished not only as a result of an increase in the size of the areas that have been sown with sunflower seeds but also as a result of an increase in sunflower yields.
Sunflowers are mostly grown in the country's huge agricultural corporations, which were responsible for 84.1 percent of the country's total production in 2011.
These agricultural agro-holdings have access to additional funding, which enables them to invest in the improvement of technology.
This has resulted in a significant increase in yields over the course of the past few years, which enabled a record output of 9.3 million metric tons of sunflower seeds in 2011/2012.
More than 95 percent of all sunflower seeds produced are crushed and used in various industrial processes.
