Oilmeal export down 86% in July

Oilmeal export fell sharply by 86 per cent to 18,410 tonnes in July, as shipments of soyameal touched a historic low on account of high domestic prices of soyabean and South Asian countries trimmed purchases,industry body Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) said in a statement.

Oilmeal export stood at 132,102 tonnes in July 2014. During April-July period of this financial year, export of oilmeals declined by 35 per cent to 492,086 tonnes compared to 757,907 tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

"Soybean crushing is very much reduced due to continuous disparity and high price of domestic market affecting overall domestic availability of both oils and meals. The export of soybean meal is at a historical low during the current year and reduced month by month and reported 18,017 tonnes in April, 14,046 tonnes in May, 2,098 tonnes in June and just 928 tonnes in July 2015. Capacity utilisation is at the lowest and many plants are closing down due to disparity in crushing and export," said SEA.

South Korea is a major importer of Indian oilmeals. During April-July 2015, South Korea imported 305,963 tonnes of oilmeals. Thailand imported 13,558 tonnes, while Vietnam imported 95,972 tonnes and Taiwan imported 19,671 tonnes. Iran imported 9,050 tonnes of oilmeals during April-July 2015, drop by 92 per cent as compared to 112,275 tonnes last year.

Exports of rapeseed meal fell 90 per cent from a year ago to 8,645 tonnes, while soymeal shipments dropped 86 per cent to a record low of 928 tonnes, SEA said in a statement.

Exports of oilmeals in the first four months of the current fiscal year that started on April 1 dropped 35 percent to 492,086 tonnes, it said.