February 9, 2012

India's oilmeal export earnings to dip US$61 million

India's oilmeal export earnings are expected to drop INR300 crore (US$61 million) in the current fiscal year as China enforces import ban on feed contamination early this year.

The rhythm of oilmeal exports from India would be broken in the last quarter of 2011-12, with the Chinese ban coming into effect from January 1, an industry body said.

"We expect to incur a loss of about INR300 crore (US$61 million) due to the ban imposed by China on shipment of oilmeals from India," Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) executive director B.V Mehta said.

India exported 344,000 tonnes of oilmeals worth about INR400 crore (US$81 million) to China in the April-December period of the current financial year before the ban came into effect, he added.

The country's earnings from the export of about 536,000 tonnes of oilmeal -- which is mostly used as animal feed -- to China stood at around INR700 crore (US$141 million) last fiscal year, Mehta said. China is one of the biggest markets for Indian oilmeal.

The ban followed complaints by China last year about the presence of Malachite Green, a highly toxic chemical, in the rapeseed meal that it imported from India.

A study conducted by the Indian government in its report in January this year found that source of the contamination was a green dye used for marking jute bags carrying rapeseed oilmeal.

"China's Quarantine Department officials will visit India this month or next month to study the crushing practice followed in India and satisfy themselves," Mehta said and expressed the hope that the ban will be lifted soon.