Oilmeal exports to Japan, EU up due to non-GM crop demand

The country's oilmeals exports to Japan in FY11 jumped more than two-fold to 12.59 lakh tonne as the latter prefers non-genetically modified (GM) crop produced by India, according to an industry body.

India had shipped 4.75 lakh tonne of oilmeal (used as cattle and poultry feed) in FY10 fiscal, according to the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA).

"Exports to Japan in the past fiscal increased more than 165% on the back of huge demand for non-GM crop of soyabean and rapeseed extract," SEA Executive Director BV Mehta told PTI.

He noted that India is basically a non-GM crop producer when it comes to oilseeds, while other major producing nations like Argentina, the US and Brazil largely produce GM crops.

A GM is a genetically modified organism (also called genetically engineered)- a plant, animal, or microorganism that is created by means that overcome natural boundaries.

Among the shipment of oilmeals to Japan, the soyameal export have increased the most. Soyameal shipments in FY11 have increased by 169% to 12.41 lakh tonne compared to 4.61 lakh tonne in the year-ago period.

"Japan is a good market for soyameal exports and I feel that we can achieve an average growth of 10% annually," Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA) coordinator Rajesh Agarwal told PTI.

Similarly, demand for Indian oilmeals (soybean and rapeseed extract) in European Union also increased five-fold to 2,99,770 tonne in FY11 compared to 58,489 tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year, Mehta added.

The soyameal exports to Europe in the past fiscal have increased by more than six-fold to 2,11,389 tonne as against 28,607 tonne in the year-ago period.

"Though the export growth of soyameal is huge to Europe but the quantity is still less, however, it is a big market and there is good potential to increase the shipments," Agarwal said.