India’s oilmeal exports plunge 58% on high prices of soybean

The Dollar Business | @TheDollarBiz India’s oilmeal exports in August 2014 have dropped sharply to 133,404 tonnes, which is down about 58% from 317,161 tonnes exported in August 2013. According to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), India’s overall oilmeal exports during April-August 2014 also declined around 36% to 864,929 tonnes from 1.35 million tonnes exported in the corresponding period last year. The steep decline is mainly due to high soybean prices in the domestic market, says SEA. Poor monsoon last year reduced supplies of soybean for crushing in the manufacture of edible oil. According to USDA estimates, India’s soybean meal production in 2013 is estimated at 6.88 million tonnes, which is down almost 12% from an estimated 7.8 million tonnes produced in the previous year. The lower soybean crop led to high cost of soybean in local market and this lead to total disparity for soybean meal in international market, says SEA. Average soybean oilmeal prices in India has hovered around $600-700 per tonne in the last five months, compared to year ago levels of around $520 per tonne. As a result, the share of soybean oilmeal in India’s total oilmeal exports, which stood at 52% during April-August 2013, has declined to around 13% in the same period this year.

Source - SEA

  The largest decline in India’s oilmeal exports was seen in exports to Iran, EU and Indonesia. During April – August 2013, Iran was the largest importer of oilmeal from India, with imports of around 472,316 tonnes, but this has shrunk over 73% to 127,182 tonnes this year. Similarly, EU’s imports of oilmeal from India has declined around 77% to 41,253 tonnes and Indonesia’s imports of oilmeal from India dropped almost 31% to 23,735 tonnes in April – August 2014 compared to the same period last year.  

This article was published on September 11, 2014.