Oilmeal export up 13% on high return

Oilmeal exports rose by 13 per cent in March following a jump in the shipment of soybean meal, rapeseed meal, castormeal and groundnut meal.

Oilmeal exports in March this year were 853,675 tonnes compared with 755,450 tonnes in the year-ago period.

The overall oilmeal exports during the financial year 2007-08 witnessed a rise of 5.25 per cent to 54,42,132 tonnes from 51,70,700 tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

According to the data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA), exports declined in the first half of the last financial year because of lower crop during 2006-07.

However, a record soybean crop of 9.4 million tonnes in 2007-08, coupled with the record price realisation in the international market, led exports to surge in the second half.

In April 2007, FOB realisation for soybean meal was $269 a tonne, which shot up sharply to $407 a tonne in March 2008. Similarly, the rapeseed meal realisation nearly doubled and reached $233 a tonne from $129 a tonne.

While groundnut meal FOB price increased to $320 a tonne from $220 a tonne, castormeal jumped to $141 a tonne from $70 a tonne in a year. The overall export earnings increased by 65 per cent from Rs 4,300 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 7,109 crore in 2007-08, thanks to better price realisation.

The better FOB realisation supported the domestic processing industry and nullified the impact of the rising rupee, said an SEA release.

In 2007-08, Vietnam increased the import of oilmeals from India to 1,708,053 tonnes, comprising 1,445,000 tonnes of soybean meal, 70,523 tonnes of rapeseed meal and 191,755 tonnes of ricebran extraction.

South Korea imported 1,032,800 tonnes from India, with 460,525 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 311,800 tonnes of soybean meal and 255,575 tonnes of castormeal. Japan imported 749,875 tonnes, accounting for of 739,175 tonnes of soybean meal and 10,700 tonnes of rapeseed meal.

In contrast, China reduced the import from India due to better local crushing and bought 143,975 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 150,500 tonnes of soybean meal and 51,825 tonnes of groundnut meal from India between April 2007 and March 2008.

Kandla emerged as the largest port for export of oilmeals, reporting 3,239,675 tonnes (60 per cent), followed by Mumbai which handled 978,202 tonnes (18 per cent), Bedi 735,975 tonnes (14 per cent), Vizag 270,975 tonnes (5 per cent), Kakinada 179,900 tonnes (3 per cent) , Kolkata 30,830 tonnes (0.5 per cent) and Pipavav 6,575 tonnes (0.2 per cent).