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Oilmeal exports fell 35 per cent to 162,000 tonnes in April due to a significant decline in soybean meal shipments, industry body Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) on Thursday said.
The country had shipped 248,000 tonnes of oilmeal, used as animal feed, in the year-ago period. “In spite of five per cent reward rate under the new Exim Policy and rupee depreciation, the export of soybean meal is at a historical low at just 18,017 tonnes in April,” SEA said in a statement. Soybean crushing has reduced due to continuous disparity in prices.
The prices are high due to heavy speculation in the commodity futures market vis-a-vis lower realisation for meal and oil, affecting overall domestic availability, it said. Also, the domestic demand for oilmeal has come down, adding to the woes of the industry. “Capacity utilisation is at the lowest and many plants are closing down due to disparity in crushing,” SEA added.
According to the SEA data, soyabean exports fell to 18,017 tonnes in April this year as against 89,883 tones in the same month last year while the shipment of rapeseed meal declined to 69,398 tonnes from 1,25,872 tonnes in the review period. Similarly, the shipment of rice bran extraction has dropped to 4,000 tonnes from 12,180 tonnes.
However, the export of castorseed meal went up to 70,641 tonnes in April this year as against 20,378 tonnes in the year ago while the shipment of groundnut extraction rose to 350 tonnes from 132 tonnes in the said period. A maximum of 119,000 tonnes of oilmeal was exported to South Korea, followed by Thailand (10,500 tonnes), Egypt (9,050 tonnes) and Taiwan (6,411 tonnes) in April. India exports oilmeal to countries such as South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Iran and European nations.
