September 8, 2005

 

Thai Soymeal Market: Prices ended stable, propped up by strong demand (week ending Sept 8)    

 

An eFeedLink exclusive report

 

Thailand's soymeal prices ended stable in the week ending Sept 8 as strong demand from its livestock sector helped ease the pressure off prices, industry sources said.

 

This is despite an ongoing harvest and ample domestic stock pushing up production of local soybean in the current rainy season, which started in August, a local feed trader said.

 

Imports by local feed users' have further bumped up the stocks of soymeal.

 

The trader said, "Apart from ample imported soymeal stocks, a big quantity of soymeal is also available at crush factories.¡¡À

 

However, soymeal prices have remained stable as demand for soymeal in chicken feed has risen with poultry exports, a result of easing bird flu concerns, a market analyst said.

 

"Healthy demand keeps prices quite stable,¡¡À the analyst was quoted as saying.  

 

Wholesale prices of soymeal extracted from local soybean stood at THB11.40-11.50/kg in Bangkok markets, unchanged from the previous week, according to the Department of Internal Trade at the Commerce Ministry. Prices were previously at THB11.50-11.65/kg a fortnight ago. 

 

Wholesale prices of imported soymeal in Bangkok-based markets were at THB11.80-12.00/kg this week, almost unchanged from the previous week. Prices a fortnight before were at THB11.90-12.10/kg.

 

Feed-grade soybean prices also held steady at THB14.00-14.25/kg this week.

 

Thailand imports large quantities of soymeal every year as domestic production falls short of consumption demand. The country produced 910,000 tonnes of soymeal in 2004, about 820,000 tonnes or 90.1 percent of which are crushed from imported soybeans and the remaining 87,000 tonnes or 9.9 percent from domestic-cultivated ones.

 

In 2004, Thailand imported 1.26 million tonnes of soymeal, down from 1.92 million tonnes imported the year earlier. This was because bird flu outbreaks had deterred consumption in the poultry industry, according to data from the Thai Feedstuff Users Promotion Association.

 

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