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). 
Since the end of the 1990s, the amount of land in Ukraine that has been used for sunflower production has expanded by more than a factor of 2.5, going from 2 million ha in 1995 to 5.1 million ha in 2012. This increase has been rather stable over the course of the past four years (Fig. 1). The regions of Kirovograd, Kharkiv, and Dnepropetrovsk account for almost 30 percent of the sunflower area sown in the country. More specifically, these three regions account for 10.8 percent, 10.5 percent, and 9.5 percent of the sunflower area sown in the country, respectively (State Statistics Committee of Ukraine). The circumstances in the forest-steppe and steppe zones, with the exception of the southern areas of the steppe zone, are the most conducive to the germination and growth of sunflowers (Kirichenko, 2010). Sunflower production in Ukraine suffered a considerable decline following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, falling from 1.58 mt ha-1 in 1990 to 0.91 mt ha-1 in 1994. Productivity did not begin to recover until 2008 at the earliest (1.53 mt ha-1). Since then, the yield has increased by 20 percent, reaching 1.84 metric tons per hectare in 2011. 
Despite this significant growth, however, actual yields in Ukraine are below 50-60 percent of the crop's biological potential (Kirichenko, 2010; Kirichenko 2013), and many large firms use modern technology to generate yields of roughly 2.5-3.5 mt ha-1. (Kirichenko, 2010; Kirichenko 2013). (Kirichenko, 2010; Perepyatko, 2013). Even more impressive is the potential of modern hybrids, which is 4.5–5 mt ha-1. The Public Register currently contains information about more than 350 different hybrids. The comparatively poor yield of sunflowers in Ukraine can be attributed to a number of causes, including the following: low amounts of fertilizer used, particularly potassium (K), failure to rotate crops, as well as the requirement for improvements in agricultural technology insufficient seed quality, The proliferation of disease (Sclerotinia head rot, Gray mold, Phomopsis, and broomrape). Despite the fact that sunflower is a crop that can withstand dry conditions, growing it in the arid parts of the southern steppe slows the growth of other plants (Kirichenko et al., 2010; Andriyenko et al., 2011). 
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. The growing importance of the oilseed sector in Ukraine The capacity of Ukrainian facilities to crush materials has greatly expanded since 1990, reaching 13.3 million metric tons per year in 2012. The Ukroliyaprom Association, which is a voluntary association of firms in the oil sector, estimates that the crushing capacity will reach approximately 15 million mt in 2015, which is near the level of oilseed output in Ukraine. The implementation of export charges on seeds in Ukraine (which currently stand at 10%) has led to a reduction in seed exports from 1 million metric tons in 2000/2001 to 0.3 million metric tons in the most recent few years, which has supported the growth of the sunflower oil sector in the country (USDA). 
The huge increase in oil output in Ukraine from approximately 1 million mt to 3.7-4.3 million mt in 2011-2012 was a direct result of significant investments made beginning in the year 2000 in the upgrading of crushing plants. The Ukrainian media reported that the General Director of the Ukroliyaprom Association, Stepan Kapshuk, stated that the country planned to harvest 9.4 million tonnes of sunflower seeds in the marketing year 2022/2023 (September to August), which represents a decrease of 42.6% compared to the 16.4 million tonnes that were produced in the previous marketing year. Additionally, such exports may decrease by roughly 1.7 times, from 1.7 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes. As a result, the production of sunflower seeds may fall to its lowest level in the past ten years during the current marketing year. According to Kaushik, the exports of oilseed crops could decrease by 10.6% in the marketing year 2022/2023, going from 5.71 million tonnes in the marketing year 2021/2022 to 5.1 million tonnes now. This would include a 1.7-time decline in the exports of sunflower seeds to 1 million tonnes and a 4% decline in the exports of rapeseed, going from 2.71 million tonnes to 2.6 million tonnes. 
In the meantime, it is possible for soybean exports to increase by 15.3%, from 1.3 million tonnes in the marketing year 2021/2022 to 1.5 million tonnes. According to what he said, Ukraine's overall objective for the marketing year 2022/2023 is to harvest 14.86 million tonnes of oilseed crops. This figure is comprised of 9.4 million tonnes of sunflower seeds, 2.87 milliontonnes of rapeseeds, and 2.59 million tonnes of soybeans, he explained. During the current marketing year, Ukraine intends to process 95.7% of the harvested sunflower seeds (9.0 million tonnes), 38.0% of the soybeans (1 million tonnes), and 7.0% of the rapeseeds (0.2 million tonnes). According to the general director of the Ukroliyaprom Association, during the marketing year 2022/2023, Ukraine will produce 4.0 million tonnes of sunflower oil, while 4.2 million tonnes will be exported, including items from the reserves from the previous year. This comes out to less than 5.2 million tonnes of manufactured oil and 4.3 million tonnes of exported oil in the marketing year 2021/2022, and it is comparable with the readings from the marketing year 2013/2014, when 4.6 million tonnes of sunflower oil were produced, and 4.19 million tonnes were exported.
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