July 15, 2010

 

Rains to boost India's soy output and exports

 

 

Revival in India's monsoon rains will help soy output rise 9.7% this year, boosting oilmeal exports, industry officials said on Tuesday (July 13).

 

Farmers in India, the world's biggest edible oil importer and Asia's leading oilmeal exporter, plant soy in the rainy months of July and August, with harvests starting from October.

 

Last year, the worst drought in 37 years cut India's output of soy, the main summer-sown oilseed, by 13.6% to 8.2 million tonnes, hitting soymeal exports to countries such as Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

 

While rainfall was 16% below average in June this year, the shortfall narrowed to 10% last week, with key crop areas such as rice-growing Punjab and Haryana in the north and soy-growing Madhya Pradesh in central India receiving adequate rains.

 

According to coordinator of the Soy Processors' Association Rajesh Agrawal, rains have been good in important states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh where sowing is almost complete. Rajasthan is the only state where planting is on.

 

Monsoon rains, which irrigate 60% of the country's farms, entered soy and groundnut areas of central and western India last month. Rains have picked up since early last week.

 

Farmers plant soy-mainly grown in the central and western parts of India-on about nine million hectares.

 

Agrawal is expecting production to be at 9 million tonnes this year although more spells of rains, especially in western parts of the country, will help the yield.

 

Meanwhile, a government statement on Monday (July 12) said planting of summer-sown oilseeds rose to 5.8 million hectares against 5.7 million hectares a year earlier.

 

Traders and industry officials say higher oilseed output would help cut India's vegetable oil import needs.

 

According to reports, vegetable oil imports in June probably fell 18% from a year ago, as farmers and traders sold oilseed reserves ahead of the summer planting season, pushing down domestic prices.

 

Higher soy output would help India boost soymeal exports to about 3 million tonnes in 2010-11 against an expected 2.5 million tonnes in 2009-10, Agrawal said.

 

However, the country's soymeal exports this year are expected to fall short of the 2008-09 level of 3.3 million tonnes due to higher harvests in leading producers such as Brazil, Argentina and the US.

 

Agrawal noted that demand in Asia, including India is also rising due to a growth in poultry sales of about 15%.

 

Soymeal is processed from soy and mainly used as cattle and poultry feed.