Oilmeal exports rose the most in three years in March on high demand from the global bird feed and animal feed industries. According to a statement by the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA), exports rose 158 per cent to 579,907 tonnes in March, from 224,407 tonnes in the month last year.
In volume terms, the overall shipment of oilmeals rose 57 per cent to 5,071,779 tonnes in the financial year (from April 2010 to March 2011), compared to 3,224,787 tonnes in the previous financial year. In value terms total exports grew 59 per cent to Rs 8,220 crore in 2010-11, compared to Rs 5,176 crore in the previous financial year.
Despite recording a staggering growth, total oilmeal exports are yet to achieve the dream volume figure of 5,421,607 tonnes in 2008-09. During the financial year, total shipment worth Rs 8,341 crore was recorded.
Attributing the growth to a recovery in global demand, B V Mehta, executive director of SEA, said: “Our effort to increase exports to West Asia brought favourable results. Total exports to the West Asian countries surged 58 per cent to 505,644 tonnes during last financial year, compared to 320,504 tonnes in the one before that.
SEA had taken a delegation to West Asia in April-May last year and evaluated oilmeal demand from the bird feed and animal feed industries in the region. The trade body is planning to take to a similar delegation to China and Cambodia between April 23 and May 3 to study the current status of their feed industry and explore new markets. Mehta hopes for a further boost to oilmeal demand from these two potential countries.
In 2009-10, export was down due to low oilseed crops, coupled with a disparity in crushing between November 2009 and February 2010 — the main crushing and export season. However, in 2010-11, oilseed crop increased to 27.8 million tonnes from 24.9 million tonnes in 2009-10. Besides, high prices of edible oils, good crushing margin and demand from Southeast Asia pushed the export mainly between November 2010 and March 2011, resulting in a substantial increase in export in 2010-11 over the previous year.
Despite a slowdown in demand from Japan in recent months, following the earthquakes and tsunami there last month, the overall oilmeal exports to the country doubled to 1,259,870 tonnes in 2010-11, compared to 474,547 tonnes last year.
“Japan is a key market that imports around 800,000 tonnes of oilmeal from us. We want fast recovery and speedy normalcy in this market, so that the demand of oilmeal can be restored,” Mehta added.
Despite the quarantine issue, Vietnam imported 853,869 tonnes of oilmeal in 2010-11, compared to 857,690 tonnes in the previous financial year. South Korea imported 624,699 tonnes, compared to 477,171 tonnes, and China bought 536,604 tonnes, compared to 333,029 tonnes, in the previous year. Fortunately, Europe has once again started buying oilmeals from India and about 300,000 tonnes were shipped during 2010-11.
Indore-based Soybean Processors’ Association (Sopa) reported total soymeal exports from India of 409,882 tonnes in March 2011 — a rise of 141 per cent from 169,861 tonnes in the same month last year. Total soymeal exports in 2010-11 jumped 80 per cent to 38,45,735 tonnes, from 21,35,765 tonnes a year ago, Sopa added.
