Breather on GM soyoil import

The edible oil market has heaved a sigh of relief after the government's decision of keeping policy on import of GM Soybean Oil in abeyance till the end of the current financial year.

In April this year, commerce ministry had asked that genetically modified (GM) products need to take a prior approval before they are imported. The timeframe of three months given for testing of samples had expired on 7 July, 2006.

"In a such short time it was not possible to test the samples. We requested the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to extend the period for another three months. However, the government extended the day till 31 March 2007," said B V Mehta, executive director, Solvent Extractor's Association of India.

Because of the April's notification there was a slowdown in the number of vessels from countries such as Argentina and Brazil. Normally, from November to June, India has optimum domestic production and the import of Soybean oil amounts to 40 per cent of the total import.

However, from July onwards till October which is a lean season, the country imports 60 per cent of the soybean oil.

Mehta said, "Had the policy been enacted, the vessels which have left after July 7 would have faced technical problem on their arrival at Indian ports. On the other hand due to less availability of soybean oil as the supply would have been delayed in such circumstances, the prices were bound to shoot up."

He added that the compilation of the data of the samples are being done and within a fortnight the report will be submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), Ministry of Environment.

During November to June, every month there is an import of 2 lakh tonne of soybean oil which rises to 2.5 tonne in the later months. India imported 10 lakh tonne of soybean oil between November 2005 and June 2006. In a year, around 25 vessels of palm oil and soybean oil arrive on Indian shores.

The annual Indian consumption of edible oil is 110-150 lakh tonne of which soybean oil accounts 30 lakh tonne. The country has its domestic production of 10 -11 lakh tonne of soybean oil and relies on imports for the rest 20 lakh tonne.

Today the price of imported crude soybean was reported at (CIF) US $ 554 per tonne. And in the local crude soybean oil was valued at Rs 38,200 per tonne and Rs 40,500 per tonne for the refined local soybean oil.