Good Demand, Tight Supplies Push Up Soymeal

Soymeal was currently quoted at $270-271 per tonne FAS(free alongside ship), up from $260-261 per tonne last week.

Around 2,000 tonnes of soybean from the new crop was arriving daily in the central Indian markets compared to arrivals of nearly 20,000 tonnes at the same time last year.

Traders said arrivals had dipped due to the Hindu festival of Diwali and were expected to pick up next week.

The Soybean Processors Association of India (Sopa) has estimated soybean output at four million tonnes in 1996/97 (November-October) against an earlier estimate of 4.4 million.

Heavy rains during the last week of October had disrupted harvesting, damaging part of the soybean crop in central India, the hub of Indias soybean industry.

 

Indian soymeal exporters have so far signed contracts to export nearly 800,000 tonnes of soymeal during November, December and January, traders said.

Demand was mainly from Indonesia, China, South Korea and the Far East, traders said.