Sunflowers: A profitable new crop for UK farmers?
12th March 2025
United Oilseeds is encouraging farmers to consider sunflowers as an exciting and profitable addition to their rotations.
Following the successful launch of the UK’s first-ever sunflower marketing pool last year, United Oilseeds is seeing growing interest in the crop’s potential to provide strong market returns, environmental benefits, and resilience in a changing climate.
Nick Hobson, United Oilseeds sunflower project lead and trading manager, says it was a good first year for the sunflower marketing pool but not without challenges:
“Year one wasn’t without some challenges, but that was to be expected and should be with anything new.
“Some of the growers in the new marketing pool did better than expected, achieving well over 2t/ha and some didn’t fare quite as well.
“Even those who didn’t do so well are looking to try again this year, seeing the benefits of this sunshine crop.”
Huge potential
Discussing the challenges in more detail, Mr Hobson explains: “Perhaps the single biggest hurdle was the moisture.
“Sunflowers need to be dried down to 15% moisture, which, when harvesting relatively late can be a challenge.
“As with any crop there are a range of pests that are partial to sunflowers, including slugs, pigeons and hares, but our growers in the main overcame these hurdles.”
Summing up he said: “The standout success of the new sunflower pool was the final price.
“We expected around £400 per tonne, but we exceeded that figure by some way, proving the huge potential of the UK’s only sunflower marketing pool for the future!”
Low input crop
One of the pool growers, Vanessa Tagg, of I M Tagg, Lincolnshire, shared her experience of the sunflower season:
“It would appear a good break crop to grow, aside from the late harvest, but we are planning on adapting this year by sowing earlier.
“They are a low input crop with only pre-emergence herbicide, a little nutrition and pre-harvest desiccation.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that stopped, walked in and admired the sunflowers and it was a real pleasure talking to the public about our new crop.
“Overall, we found growing sunflowers a really positive experience and the pictures and videos were lovely to share on our social media.”
Multiple revenue streams
With the UK currently reliant on sunflower oil imports, domestic production offers a valuable opportunity to meet rising demand while diversifying farm income through multiple revenue streams, including oil production, birdseed, and edible seed markets.
Beyond economic advantages, sunflowers bring agronomic and environmental benefits that make them an attractive break crop.
Their deep-rooting system improves soil health, while their resilience to drought and low input requirements makes them a practical option for farmers looking to future-proof their operations.
As a pollinator-friendly crop, sunflowers also support biodiversity and align with sustainable farming incentives, including the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes.
Hassle-free way to market crop
With growing industry momentum and dedicated marketing support from United Oilseeds, sunflowers could play a key role in strengthening UK arable farming.
United Oilseeds’ sunflower marketing pool offers farmers a hassle-free way to market their crop with default free produce of area contracts.
Crops are moved at the buyer’s call from the end of harvest, with the option for immediate movement where storage agreements exist.
To support UK growers, the pool includes a choice of two seed varieties specifically trialed for UK conditions, ES Bella from Grainseed and LG50268 from Limagrain, both providing proven performance.
For any growers looking to find out more please visit the United Oilseeds website where you will also find the latest growing guide.
