December 19, 2007

 

India on track for record soymeal exports

 

 

India is on track for record exports of the animal feed after selling 2.5 million tonnes since October, ensuring more than half of targeted exports of 4.5 million tonnes for September 2008.

 

Asia's biggest supplier of soymeal competes with Brazil and Argentina for soymeal sales to nations including China, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea.

 

Exporters are benefiting from prices which gained 71 percent in Chicago in the past year after US farmers planted the smallest acreage to soy in 12 years.

 

Rajesh Agrawal of the Soybean Processors Association of India said that Indian soymeal continues to be in great demand from buyers in China, Europe and Southeast Asia.

 

The country exported 3.5 million tonnes in the 2006/07 marketing year and has raised its export target to 4.5 million tonnes after the domestic soybean crop forecast was raised to 9.45 million tonnes from 8.87 million.

 

Soy yesterday extended a rally to the highest since 1973 on speculation that US demand for fuel made from grain and oilseeds would surge. 

 

Indian soymeal prices have almost doubled at US$400 a tonne, excluding freight costs, from last year.

 

European traders have contracted to buy as much as 100,000 tonnes of Indian soymeal while Chinese firms are seeking more from the South Asian nation to take advantage of lower freight rates, Agrawal pointed.

 

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping costs, has more than doubled in the past year.

 

Atul Chaturvedi, president of Adani Enterprises Ltd., a soymeal exporter, said that Indian suppliers have an edge over South American rivals due to freight differential.

 

India may ship as much as 500,000 tons of soybean meal to China in the year to September, compared with 132,000 tons last year, Agrawal added.