Vietnam spurns low-quality Indian corn and soymeal cargoes

Vietnam has rejected a corn and a soymeal cargo from India, each containing around 12,000 tonnes of products, due to low quality, traders said.

The corn shipment was rejected a few days back and had been sold by the Indian subsidiary of a US-based global commodities trading company, according to reports.

The shipment had been dispatched from India's Mangalore port. Traders said it had been sold around US$245/tonne, covering cost and freight. "It is a standalone incident and India's overall exports of corn continue to be of high quality," a New Delhi-based exporter said. He said the corn had been lying at Mangalore port for around three months before shipment and the grains got damaged.

"Only one shipment was rejected. Vietnam is still buying Indian corn for container shipments but the price is high," traders said.

India currently offers corn at around US$235/tonne for container shipment to Ho Chi Minh City in April. Small volumes are also being exported to Malaysia from the southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Traders said the rejected soymeal cargo was sold by a soy processing and exporting company in India's central Madhya Pradesh state and was priced around US$435/tonne.

After the rejection, the cargo ended up being resold in Vietnam at a US$20/tonne discount.

It is not uncommon for Vietnamese traders to cite lower quality to reject cargoes but later agree to buy the same cargo at a discount, according to reports.

India is Asia's largest exporter of soymeal and also ships out 25,000-50,000 tonnes of corn each month during the peak November-March season.