May 8, 2009

India's soymeal exports are taking a sharp hit in the current marketing year ending Sept. 30, 2009, according to the Soy Processors' Association of India.

 

Exports of soymeal during April were at 83,894 tonnes, down 84.75% from the same month last year.

 

Overall soymeal exports in the October 2008-April 2009 period were down 29.38% on year at 2.66 million tonnes.

 

The association said the fall in soymeal exports was a primarily a result of lower arrivals of soys in the market, which led to lower crushing of soys into soymeal.

 

Asian traders said that at present buyers are avoiding buying Indian soymeal, since the South American variety is cheaper.

 

India will begin sowing its new soy crop later this month, with harvesting to begin in September.

 

In electronic trading around 0700 GMT, Chicago Board of Trade May soymeal contracts were up US$2.30 at US$361 a tonne.

 

In other news, South Korean feedmillers are unlikely to import much corn and soymeal in the week ahead, after significant purchases last week.

 

South Korean companies bought 220,000 tonnes of corn and 110,000 tonnes of soymeal from the international market last week, a grains buying manager in a Seoul-based trading company said Thursday.

 

He said that with last week's purchases, South Korean feedmills are well-stocked with corn until the end of August and with soymeal up to the end of July.

 

Most of last week's corn was purchased from the U.S. around US$200-US$210/tonne, free on board, while the soymeal was procured from South America around US$397-US$398/tonne, free on board.

 

In other news, Thailand's Jan. 1-April 27 rice exports fell 33.4% on year to 2.6 million tonnes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report emailed Friday, quoting official Thai government figures.

 

The export figure include white rice, parboiled rice and fragrant rice.