Drop in castor oil use hurts industry

Over 300 delegates from all over the country and abroad, including persons involved in production and marketing of castor seeds and oil, will participate in a day-long international seminar on "Castor seed, castor oil and its value-added products" that will be held at Grand Bhagwati in Ahmedabad on February 8.

The seminar is being held in the backdrop of the fact that there has been a drop in the production and yield per hectare of castor seeds in India over the past couple of years.

India is the biggest producer of castor seeds in the world, producing over 90 per cent of the total requirement.

Being organised by the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), the topics that will be discussed at the seminar will include the challenges in the emerging global scenario, castor oil derivatives, India's preparedness for meet coming opportunities, futures trading, strategies for export growth of castor seeds and oil and promotion of castor meal as a fertiliser, said B V Mehta, executive director of SEA.

Although the area under cultivation of castor marginally increased from 0.62 million hectare in 2001-02 to 0.63 million hectare in 2002-03, there has been a drop in both production as well as yield per hectare over the same period.

While production fell from 0.59 million tonne to 0.58 million tonne, the yield per hectare fell from 0.96 tonne per hectare to 0.93 tonne per hectare.

India is the world leader in production of castor seeds for a long time now and the country meets 90 per cent of the world's requirement of castor oil.

Exports of castor oil and derivatives contribute to more than Rs 700 crore worth of foreign exchange to the country.

Consumption of castor oil in the global markets is, however, is not growing and this poses to be an alarming situation for castor growers of India and the castor oil market as a whole.

The seminar will look at ways and means to arrest any further decline in the consumption of castor products and plan detailed action plan to reverse the present trend.

With access to latest technological inputs and innovations, it is possible for castor growers to create the right conditions and inputs to improve crop yields as well as quality.

The castor oil market has immense potential for growth but the market is not being able to cushion the higher growth mainly because of volatility in prices and inadequate research and development in this field.

Investment in research and development, diversification and extensive marketing will go a long way in securing the industry's future, organisers said.