According to the February global agricultural yield report issued by United States Departments of Agriculture, the yield of Ukraine sunflower seeds in 2017/2018 was estimated to be 130 million tons, which is equal to the estimated value of the previous month but is 2.2 million tons less than the record-breaking level of the previous year. The sown area and the per unit yield data of the sunflower seeds maintain unchanged which are 6.4 million hectares and 2.03 tons/hectare, respectively. To a certain extent, these data refer to the initial harvest data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The yield data of State Statistics Service of Ukraine is 12.2 million tons.
　　The yield data of United States Departments of Agriculture includes the yield in Crimea, Russia.
　　Based on the export data and other relevant data of sunflower oil, the official yield data of the sunflower seeds over the past 12 years underestimated the actual yield scale, with the difference of up to 16% sometimes. Private analysis agency think this is mainly due to inaccurate data provided by farmers to the State Statistics Service. Farmers conceal or underreport their actual sown area and yield because of fears that the government will punish them for planting sunflower seeds too often. Experts advise farmers not to re-plant sunflower seeds on the same farmland every five to seven years in order to reduce soilborne fungal diseases. However, due to the continued high income from sunflower seed planting, many farmers planted sunflower seeds more frequently regardless of their advisement.