Oilmeal exports rise 61% in October on renewed demand

Oilmeal exports rose a staggering 61 per cent in October, on a gradual improvement in demand in the past two months due to drought in Russia and bullish reports from the US Department of Agriculture, which helped in pick-up of demand from India.

Data compiled by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEAI) show India’s overall oilmeal exports jumped to 498,159 tonnes in October, as compared to 309,886 tonnes in the comparable period of the previous year. Overall exports in April-October spurted 21 per cent to 1.87 million tonnes this year, as against 1.54 mt in the same period last year.

 

The sudden rise in demand, experts believe, helped Indian exporters to liquidate most of the carryover stock of soybean. The export of oilmeals and crushing was also supported by a good margin in the past two months, thanks to better oil prices. All these positive factors boosted overall meal export in October, said B V Mehta, executive director of SEAI.

Exports of soybean meal in October saw a record high with 395,510 tonnes from 290,868 tonnes in the previous month.

An SEAI delegation’s visit to West Asia in April yielded positive results, with oilmeal exports having almost doubled this financial year, at 146,054 tonnes during April-October as compared to 87,122 tonnes during the same period of last year.

During April-October, meal exports to South Korea jumped marginally to 264,893 tonnes from 253,535 tonnes, consisting of 173,496 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 83,499 tonnes of castor seed meal and a small quantity of 7,898 tonnes of soybean meal.China reported an import of 207,178 tonnes as compared to 178,882 tonnes of last year, consisting of 156,267 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 14,388 tonnes of groundnut meal, 35,918 tonnes of soybean meal and 605 tonnes of castorseed meal.

Japan doubled the import to 527,417 tonnes as compared to 230,848 tonnes last year, consisting of 512,117 tonnes of soybean meal and 15,300 tonnes of rape seed meal. Vietnam imported of 322,781 tonnes as compared to 399,714 tonnes last year, consisting of 242,896 tonnes of soybean meal, 26,735 tonnes of rape seed meal and 53,150 tonnes of rice bran extraction.

The shipment from Kandla was reported at 866,482 tonnes (46 per cent of the total), followed by Mumbai and Navi Mumbai handling 568,046 tonnes (30 per cent), Mundra 296,531 tonnes (16 per cent), Kolkata 53,150 tonnes (3 per cent), Bedi 82,725 tonnes (4 per cent) and Bhavnagar 7,434 tonnes (1 per cent)