Within Soltis, we started working on High-Oleic (HO) sunflower varieties in the late 90’s and a first generation of hybrids was released in 1998. The second generation of hybrids with an improved agronomical profile and higher oleic content, above 85%, was launched in 2004-2006.
There are several benefits of HO sunflower hybrids. First of course, it is the oil composition! which provides a more stable oil, less oxidability, especially for frying usages. And not to forget, also the shelf life of the seeds is increased because of this HO feature. I am proud to say that our HO varieties stand out from the competition because we target high levels of oleic content, towards 88%. And we build this into a genetic background with very good agronomic value and an excellent trait package, such as resistances to downy mildew, broomrape, and other diseases that are affecting sunflower.
But on the flipside, there are also a few challenges to breeding HO sunflower.
The first challenge was to stabilize the oleic content at a high level, irrespective of the environment which was not easy for cooler environments. Then, because our main breeding effort is with conventional sunflower, genetic improvement and innovation are more often on that side of the breeding. You need then to transfer this genetic improvement in the oleic pool by conversion. In terms of further breeding for oil composition, we’d like to decrease the level of saturated fatty acids, in order to get an increased nutritional value.
One thing that we noticed is that HO sunflower is strong in France but is not really taking off in other countries and we speculate that maybe the demand of this type of oil is not so high for the moment. But when the demand and the premium are there, many farmers want to grow HO sunflowers. And sometimes it happens that in those cases there is not enough seeds for all of them. Farmers want to grow the HO sunflowers because it increases their profitability thanks to the premium. Other benefits are that HO sunflowers have a similar field performance as conventional varieties and a higher price for the grain (10% or more).
There are also benefits for consumers, because the oil is a very polyvalent oil, with a good nutritional profile, rich in vitamin E and phytosterols, just like conventional sunflower oil.
