India's soymeal exports down 74% in 2015-16

The Dollar Business Bureau

India's soymeal exports fell by 74% to 387,297 tonnes during the financial year 2015-16 from a year ago, the Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) said in a release on Monday.

Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka and Taiwan continued to be the major importers of Indian soymeal in the financial year that ended on March 31.

In February, total exports of soymeal remained at just 1,127 tonnes, which stood at 98% less than 64,515 tonnes registered in February last fiscal. Soymeal exports in January this year was just 7,707 tonnes.

During April-January 2015-16, total exports of the product fell by 87% to 69,266 tonnes as against 5.35 lakh tonnes during the same period previous year.

The industry bodies have attributed this slump to less domestic production, which has been hit hard by less than average monsoon and lack of interest among the Indian farmers.

A smaller domestic production and industries’ growing dependency on imports of soymeal, have made the domestic prices expensive. Industries prefer importing soymeal from South American countries as they find the domestic product expensive.

The annual production of soymeal in India is about 6 million tonnes.