Oilseeds. Soyameal, rapemeal drag oilmeals export lower by 11% in April-October

Export of oilmeals during the first seven months of the current fiscal dropped by 11 per cent mainly as Indian soyameal and rapemeal were priced higher in the global market than Brazil and Argentina.

Overall export of oilmeals slid to 14.33 lakh tonnes (lt) during the April-October period of this fiscal against 16.19 lt during the same period a year ago.

BV Mehta, Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), said the 11 per cent decline is due to fall in export of soyabean meal and rapeseed meal.

He said soyabean crush margins in India are currently squeezed by pressure on meal prices and relatively high price expectation of farmers for soyabean. Currently, it is quoted over ₹6,000 a quintal.

Added to this, the further reduction of import duties on vegetable oils recently has taken away some protection for Indian oilseed crushers, and curtailed their scope to offer soyameal and rapeseed meal competitively in the world market, he said.

At present, India is outpriced in soyabean meal export as ex-Kandla quoted at $ 600 a tonne against $431 for Brazil origin, and $450 for Argentina (ex-Rotterdam).

He said India is unlikely to export in next 2-3 months due to high price of domestic soyabean seed. The silver lining is that sufficient quantity of soyabean meal will be available for poultry feed in the domestic market, he said.

The provisional data for the export of oilmeals was at 1.57 lt for October as against to 3.18 lt in October 2020, a decline of 51 per cent.

Ricebran

He said the ricebran extraction is performing better due to larger demand from Vietnam and Bangladesh. India exported 4.01 lt of ricebran extraction during the first seven months of 2021-22 as against 2.29 lt in the corresponding period of the previous year.

S Korea Tops

South Korea was the major importer of oilmeals during the April-October of 2021-22. It imported 3.73 lt of oilmeals (5.09 lt). This included 2.27 lt of rapeseed meal, 1.28 lt of castorseed meal and 17,535 tonnes of soyameal.

During April-October, Vietnam imported 3.39 lt of oilmeals (2.31 lt). This included 2.71 lt of ricebran extraction, 66,292 tonnes of rapemeal,1,608 tonnes of soyameal, and 166 tonnes of groundnut meal.

During the first seven months of the fiscal, Thailand imported 1.37 lt of oilmeals (1.22 lt). This included 1.24 lt of rapemeal, 9,816 tonnes of castorseed meal, 1,524 tonnes of soyameal and 1,367 tonnes of ricebran extraction.

Bangladesh, which is sourcing rapemeal and ricebran extraction from India, imported 2.40 lt of oilmeals (1.78 lt). This included 87,123 tonnes of ricebran extractions, 1.52 lt of rapeseed meal and 188 tonnes of soyabean meal.

He said that Taiwan imported 57,148 tonnes of oilmeals (86,773 tonnes), including 37,029 tonnes of castorseed meal, 17,202 tonnes of rapemeal, 2,531 tonnes of soyameal, and 386 tonnes of groundnut meal.

The US imported 49,694 tonnes of oilmeals (1.31 lt) during the first seven months of 2021-22. This included 48,410 tonnes of soyabean meal and 1,284 tonnes rapemeal.

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