Oilmeal exports fall by 42% in August to 92,000 tonnes

Fall in soya crushing and meal shipments drag down overall export numbers

Oilmeals exports fell by 42 per cent in August to 91,834 tonnes on sharp decline in soyabean meal shipments, industry body SEA said today.

The country had shipped 1,56,942 tonnes of oilmeals, used as animal feed, in the same period last year.

"Soyabean crushing is very much reduced due to continuous disparity and high price of domestic market affecting overall domestic availability of both oils and meals. Soyabean meal export is at a historical low," Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said in a statement.

As a result, capacity utilisation is at the lowest and many plants are closed down due to disparity in crushing and export, it added.

As per the SEA data, soyabean meal exports dropped sharply to 768 tonnes in August this year from 2,778 tonnes in the year-ago period.

Similarly, the shipment of rapeseed meal exports fell to 49,788 tonnes from 1,12,375 tonnes, while that of ricebran extraction declined to 8,500 tonnes from 19,656 tonnes in the same period last year.

However, castorseed meal exports increased to 32,778 tonnes in August this year from 22,001 tonnes in year-ago.

During the April-August period of this fiscal, oilmeals exports fell by 33 per cent to 6,09,748 tonnes from 9,14,849 tonnes in the year-ago period.

Exports to South Korea declined by over 9 per cent to 3,84,956 tonnes in April-August this year from 4,23,918 tonnes in the year-ago period. Similarly, the shipments to Thailand fell by sharply by 82 per cent to 17,142 tonnes in the said period.

India exports oilmeal to countries including South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Iran and European nations.