August 26, 2005

 

Thai Soymeal Market: Prices slightly down as harvest starts; lower global prices spur imports (week ending Aug 25, 2005)

  

An eFeedLink exclusive report

 

 

Soymeal prices in Thailand lowered a little in the week ending Aug 25 as supply started to rise from the rainy season-crop soybean harvest, feed industry players said.

 

"Soybean supplies have started entering the market as harvest of the rainy-season crop has just began this month, so soymeal production is rising,"a feed user said.

  

Recent global soymeal price falls have also pressured domestic prices too, he added.

 

Thailand imports large amounts of soymeal every year to meet the shortfall in domestic consumption. In 2004, the country produced 910,000 tonnes of soymeal, of which about 820,000 million tonnes were produced from imported soybeans and another 87,000 tonnes from domestic-cultivated ones.

 

In the same year, Thailand imported 1.26 million tonnes of soymeal, down due to the bird flu outbreak from the 1.92 million tonnes imported in 2003, according to data from the Feedstuff Users Promotion Association.

 

This year, the Ministry of Agriculture predicted soymeal consumption at 2.25 million tonnes.

 

In Bangkok, wholesale prices of soymeal extracted from locally produced soybeans stand at around THB11.50-11.65/kg, a slight drop from THB11.75-11.95/kg the previous week, according to the Department of Internal Trade at the Commerce Ministry.

 

Also in Bangkok, wholesale prices of imported soymeal are THB11.90-12.10/kg, falling slightly from previous week's prices at THB12.00-12.30/kg.

 

Soymeal imports might have been encouraged by recent falls in global soymeal prices, market players said.

 

Prices of soymeal imported into Thailand averaged at about US$260 (CFR) currently, falling by US$4-5/tonne from prices earlier this month, the feed user said.

 

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