Oilmeal exports jump 28% in Feb

Riding on the back of higher realisation in overseas markets, India's oilmeal exports have recorded a significant increase in the first two months of the current calendar year.

According to the data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), the Mumbai-based representative of about 1,000 solvent extractors, total oilmeal exports rose by 28 per cent in February to 759,275 tonnes compared with 592,775 tonnes in the same month last year.

B V Mehta, executive director of SEA, attributed the rise in exports to high edible oil and oilseed prices and better oilseed output in the country.

The overall exports of oilmeals for April 2007-February 2008 are reported at 4.5 million tonnes compared with 4.4 million tonnes. In the first half of 2007-08, exports declined due to lower output in 2006-07.

However, a record soybean output of 9.4 million tonnes in 2007-08 coupled with record price realization in the international market is pushing the exports of oilmeals in the second half of the year.

In April 2007, FoB (freight on board) realisation of soymeal was $269, which went up to $417 a tonne in February 2008.

Similarly, rapeseed meal realisation nearly doubled to $220 a tonne, while groundnut meal prices increased to $317 and castor meal jumped to $125 from $70.

Better FoB realization had given good support to domestic processing industry and had nullified the impact of the rupee depreciation, a SEA release said.