September 24, 2007

Higher crop, price to hike India's 2008 soymeal exports by 10 percent

India may export 10 percent more next year after farmers increased plantings of soy to benefit from higher prices, according to Bloomberg news.

Asia's biggest supplier of soymeal may exceed its exports by 4 million tonnes beginning October, from an estimated 3.5 million tonnes a year earlier, Davish Jain, chairman of the Central Organization for Oil Industry and Trade, India's biggest grouping of edible oil processors, said at an industry conference in Goa yesterday.

Higher Indian exports may pose competition for the US and Latin American suppliers of soy meal in Japan, South Korea and Thailand. India traditionally exports the soy product to Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam, Indonesia, China, South Korea and Japan.

Jain said Indian soymeal can meet Asian demand as its freight rates are cheaper compared with South American suppliers.

Some Indian traders have contracted to sell about 750,000 tonnes of soy meal from the new crop at an average US$300 a tonne free on board for shipments in November to some Southeast Asian countries, Jain said.

India's soy harvest may rise to 8.6 million tonnes this year from 7.66 million tonnes a year ago, the Central Organization for Oil Industry and Trade, said Sept. 10.

Soymeal, India's largest meal export, is added to poultry feed as a form of protein to aid birds' growth. The country usually exports more than 70 percent of its output, benefiting from low freight costs to Asian markets.