July 4, 2007

India may exceed its 2007/08 soybean crop of 7.5 million tonnes

India is expecting to exceed 2007/08 soybean production of 7.5 million tonne harvest from the year before, with sowing in full motion with monsoon rains arriving in major growing regions, traders said on Tuesday (July 3).

The drop in soymeal output in the United States is likely to push demand for Indian soymeal exports, they said.

Davish Jain, chairman of the Central Organisation of Oil Industry and Trade said though it is too early to forecast output for the year to September 2008, he expressed confidence that production would be above the year-ago number of 7.5 million tonnes.

India grows two oilseeds crops such as soybean and ground nut and are sown as the monsoons arrive in June and harvested in October.

Winter crop sowing -- mainly of rapeseed -- starts in October with the harvest beginning in March.

Soybean is mainly grown in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and western states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Farmers to date have planted 65 percent of soybean on the total land area put aside for the crop in Madhya Pradesh, and hope to complete sowing within the next 20 days, an oilseed trader from the western state of Gujarat said.

Jain said higher output is good as global demand is seen exceeding supplies due to an impending soybean shortage in the US in favour to corn due to strong ethanol demand.

India has exported around 3.4 to 3.5 million tonnes of soymeal in the crop year that began in October 2006, against 4.5 million tonnes shipped in the year before, at an average price of US$220 to US$230 a tonne.

India exports soymeal mainly to South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and Sri Lanka.