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The country's soybean harvest would be delayed by a month this year, pushing back new-crop soymeal shipments to Southeast Asia until November, traders said on Wednesday.
The late arrival of this year's monsoon in the main soybean-growing areas of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra states pushed back planting of the crop by more than three weeks.
The late monsoon this year in Maharashtra state also led some farmers to shift completely to soybeans from corn because the oilseed needs less water and matures in three months as compared to four for corn. In India, the fifth top producer of soybeans, the crop is usually sown from the second half of June with the spread of the monsoon rains, with the planting usually over by mid-July.
"This year soybean ... planting spilled over until August first week," S K Srivastava, head of the state-run Directorate of Soybean Research, said.
"Periodic rains have so far ensured good soil moistures for a healthy growth of the soybean crop," added Srivastava, the country's leading soybean scientist.
India's soybean crop area stood at 11.03 million hectares against 12.18 million hectares last year, according to the latest farm ministry update. This year's area is 6.3 per cent more than the average area of 10.38 million hectares for the past five years, according to the ministry's update.
Traders estimated India's soybean production at 9-10 million tonnes (mt) in 2013, much lower than the Indian government's official figure of 12 mt. Traders said their estimate took into account damage to the oilseed crop from late rains during its harvest season. Last year's lower soybean output led to a 68 per cent rise in India's soyoil imports to 1.2 mt during November 2013 to July 2014, according to the Mumbai based trade body Solvent Extractors' Association of India.
India is the world top soyoil importer, with imports meeting about half of its annual demand of 3.2 mt.
The country's soymeal exports are estimated to have fallen to around 2.9 mt so far in 2014, down at least a third from last year due to the drop in soybean output, said the SOPA official Agrawal.
Soymeal is the solid residue left after extracting oil from soybeans. It is shipped to countries such as South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to be used as an animal feed.
