Oilmeal exports in December up 55% despite flu scare

Good demand from Asian countries has propped up the country's oilmeal exports in December by 55 per cent year on year to 5.79 lakh tonne.

The data provided by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEAI) indicates that the bird flu scare has not hit soymeal exports. As the fears subsided, meal exports to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam witnessed a rise in the last month.

"The Far East markets, which were operating at very low inventory during the last two months, increased their buying. Better realisation due to the strong rupee (against the US dollar), competitiveness of Indian meal, easy availability and increased movement in container load pushed the overall exports during the month," BV Mehta, SEAI's executive director, said.

During October-December, the exports rose to 11 lakh tonne compared with 6.4 lakh tonne in the year-ago period, according to SEAI data. Also, the exports in the first nine months of the current financial year (that is, April-December) have risen to 24 lakh tonne (19.5 lakh tonne in the corresponding period last year).

After a lull in the April-June period this year, following lower crushing margin and production, the demand for oilmeal has seen a rise as the crushing margin improved.

Looking at the global demand and price competitiveness, the oilmeal exports from the country are expected to maintain this pace overall, Mehta said.

Exports of castor meal rose to 1.6 lakh tonne during April-December period (45,000 tonne). Demand for castor meal as an organic fertiliser in new markets like Vietnam, Thailand and Japan has boosted the castor meal exports. The traditional markets for the commodity are Taiwan and South Korea.

Groundnut meal and rapeseed meal have maintained their respective share in the export kitty, while rice bran extraction export rose to 60,000 tonne during the nine-month period compared with 43,000 tonne last year.

Port-wise, the oilmeal exports from Kandla were reported at 14.66 lakh tonne (61 per cent of the total), followed by Mumbai at 4.05 lakh tonne (17 per cent), Vishakapatnam 2.2 lakh tonne (9 per cent), Bedi 1.99 lakh tonne (8 per cent), Kakinada 56,025 tonne (2 per cent) and Bhavnagar 2,600 tonne (2 per cent).