Soyabean processors want adequate hexane, coal supply

The country looked set to harvest a record soyabean crop of 80 lakh tonnes, with 47 lakh tonnes being harvested in Madhya Pradesh alone, but the Soyabean Processors Association of India (Sopa) warned that soyabean processing was likely to be hit by a shortage of hexane.

Public sector oil companies were the primary source of supply for hexane.

"Processing of 70 lakh tonnes of soyabean would require about 35 million tonnes of hexane in the season," according to Sopa chairman Rajesh Agrawal.

The processing of soybean was generally done in India using the solvent extraction process which was dependant on hexane.

If processing was hit, it could affect exports. Sopa said it expected soybean meal exports to touch 4 million tons in the year 2004-05. Madhya Pradesh has 150 soya processing plants.

Sopa said it had sent a request to the central ministry of petroleum and natural gas as well as the three public sector oil companies to make available adequate volumes of hexane so that the demand from processing units was fully satisfied.

The processors also used coal as an energy source and Sopa had sent a request to the central ministry of coal and mines to ensure supply of coal in adequate quantities.

Processing had already started in view of good international demand. The units would require around 7-8 lakh tonnes of coal for processing.

Processing units used good quality coal as it would affect the quality of soybean meal produced. The product would have to meet international requirements.

Agarwal said excellent prices in 2003 had encouraged farmers bring more area under soybean cultivation in the coming season. Processing demand would therefore be strong for quite some time as a result.

The third crucial link the soyabean chain was movement of large quantities of bulk soyabean and meal from the hinterland producing and processing areas to ports for export. Indian Railways, particularly the Central and Western divisions, would have to gear up to meet this demand from processors.

"If the industry exports 4 million tons of soybean meal in the coming season, the country would earn foreign exchange of about Rs 4000 crore and also save foreign exchange worth Rs 4500 crore by way of import substitution of edible oil," Agarwal said.