September 2, 2010
Indian soymeal eyes strong September-November exports
India is likely to export more than 400,000 tonnes of soymeal in September-November amid strong demand from Asian countries and lower bean prices, a senior industry official said.
"Globally prices of wheat and corn are at higher levels because of which we are getting good realisation for soy meal and hopefully this should continue. We are optimistic and getting good response from the market," Praveen Khandelwal, vice president, strategy at Gokul Refoils and Solvent Ltd said Wednesday (Sept 1). The company has signed export deals for 20,000 tonnes of soymeal in September-November at an average price of US$370 per tonne free on board.
India may corner a bigger share of the market in 2010/11 pricing cargoes at competitive rates due to lower soy prices and pose a direct challenge to exports from South America and the US. The south Asian country annually sells some 3-4 million tonnes of soymeal, but in 2009/10 it lost market share on lower production due to a drought amid strong supplies from Argentina and Brazil.
Soy price in India has fallen over 5% in the past fortnight as farmers have been offloading older stocks ahead of arrivals from new crop from October.
"Soybean sowing is less in Maharashtra, but because of good monsoon rains expectations of the yield are higher," he said.
Area under soy stood at 9.18 million hectares as on August 20, slightly down from 9.38 million hectares last year, but weather in top growing states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan is favourable for crop's growth.
Higher output of soy and other summer-sown oilseeds will help the world's biggest edible oil importer to trim overseas purchases from October onwards.
Good rainfall in northern Rajasthan state will help rapeseed, the main winter-sown oilseed, said Khandelwal. Gokul is one of country's leading crushers of rapeseed and is expanding capacity on hopes of higher output in 2010/11.