Oilmeal exports fall 14% in April

India’s oilmeal exports in April declined 14 per cent from a year ago to 204,346 tonnes, according to data released by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India on Wednesday.

“Exports are down due to lower crushing and disparity in the last few months. Disparity is because of excessive speculation in futures market, depreciation of the dollar against the rupee, and withdrawals of Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana scheme on soymeal last year,” SEA said.

India’s soymeal exports in April fell to 60,264 tonnes from 100,106 tonnes last year, while rapeseed meal exports increased to 117,778 tonnes from 102,187 tonnes.

Castor seed meal exports dropped to 14,604 tonnes in April compared with 16,944 tonnes in the previous year, and exports of rice bran meal plunged to 11,700 tonnes from 19,348 tonnes, the data showed. There was no export of groundnut meal and sunflower meal in April.

South Korea, China, and Japan were the major buyers of Indian oilmeal. In April, oilmeal exports to South Korea rose 73.1 per cent on year to 53,074 tonnes, that to China fell 20.8 per cent to 46,254 tonnes. To Japan, it increased 3.4 per cent to 35,363 tonnes and to Vietnam plunged 67.1 per cent to 22,539 tonnes.