September 27, 2004

India Summer-Sown Oilseeds Output Likely 11 MT, Down On Year

India's summer-sown oilseeds crop, or Kharif, is expected around 11 million metric tons this year, down from 12.5 million tons last year, due to slack monsoon rains, a senior oilseeds industry member said Friday.

"This year, we haven't been fortunate enough to get satisfactory rains as sowing in most states didn't take place on time," said Govindbhai G. Patel, a member of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India. He was speaking at the Globoil seminar for the oilseeds sector.

Patel said the shortage of rains, particularly in July, the second month of the monsoon season, has been very damaging for the six Kharif oilseeds.

Output of the largest oilseeds crop - soybean - is likely to remain unchanged at 6.4 million tons, Patel estimates.

Unlike other oilseeds whose outputs are expected to fall, soybean output is likely to remain flat as the crop was sown over larger areas across the country this year.

Output of the second biggest crop, groundnut, is likely to be around 3.7 million tons compared with 5 million tons last year, Patel said.

Kharif is the second crop season in India, and crops are sown in June and July and harvested in October and November.