April 12, 2011

India's oilmeal exports rise by 57%

India's oilmeal exports rose by 57% to 5.07 million tonnes last fiscal year, driven by the high price of edible oils, better crushing margins and strong demand from countries in South East Asia.

India shipped 3.22 million tonnes of oilmeal last year, which is used as cattle and poultry feed, said the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA).

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, exports fell due to lower crop production, coupled with disparity in crushing during the crucial November, 2009-February, 2010 period, SEA said. "However, in 2010-11, the oilseed crop increased to 27.8 million tonnes from 24.9 million tonnes in 2009-10 and also high prices of edible oils, good crushing margin and demand from South East Asia pushed the exports mainly during November, 2010-March, 2011," SEA executive director B.V Mehta said.

In terms of value, oilmeal exports rose by almost 59% to INR79.3 billion (US$1.78 billion)as against INR5,176 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

In March 2011, oilmeal exports rose more than two-fold (158%) to 5.79 lakh tonnes from 2.24 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

Out of 50,71,779 tonnes of oilmeal exported from the country during the past fiscal year, the share of soymeal was maximum at 38,38,375 tonnes, followed by rape mustard seed meal at 9,36,238 tonnes, castormeal at 2,09,036 tonnes. Rice bran extracts comprised another 66,650 tonnes and groundnut extracts 21,480 tonnes.

Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, China and Indonesia are major oilmeal export destinations of India in the past fiscal year. It also shipped it to EU, Thailand, Iran and Taiwan.