S B Zaveri, chairman, Groundnut Extractions Export Development Association (Geeda), said that India's export performance in the last fiscal was adversely affected by the Asian financial crisis which manifested itself in June, 1997 beginning with Thailand and soon engulfed Indonesia. He was addressing the 29th annual general meeting of the association.
Exports of groundnut extractions during 1997-98 was estimated to be 2.75 lakh tonne valued at Rs 175 crore as against 3.24 lakh tonne valued at Rs 229.98 crore during 1996-97, showing a decline of 15 per cent in quantity and 23.9 per cent by way of realisation.
Zaveri said that currency devaluation in the major markets made imports of goods into those countries costly and, therefore, non-viable in terms of the highly reduced purchasing power of the local currencies. More importantly, there was a pronounced rise in the level of unemployment, leading to a further erosion of disposable income in the hands of families. Consumer demand even for essential food items like white meat and other poultry and dairy products showed a significant decline. "So it was hardly surprising that India's exports of oilmeals, including groundnut extractions, suffered a marked erosion in volumes as well as value," he observed.
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Zaveri said that the major cause for worry now was not so much the rising volumes of imports "but the fact that we are already reaching a stage where we would not be able to finance these imports on the basis of our export earnings from the oilseeds sector." Going by the sharp drop in FOB values seen during the past few months as well as the anticipated lower realisations that are expected against oilmeals exports during the coming new season, the contribution of this sector to the national exchequer by way of export earnings is expected to be significantly lower, Zaveri said. He also added that India is likely to emerge as a net importer of oilseeds by-products thereby forfeiting its position as a net exporter.
Zaveri said that as per the latest estimates, the size of the Gujarat groundnut crop, in-shell, may range between 1.2 and 1.5 million tonne. On an all-India basis, the pattern of the monsoon has been satisfactory, though there have not been any estimates of bumper oilseeds crop till now.