India’s soya meal exports are losing market to competing suppliers from North and South America. Exports from India dipped to a historic low at 1,127 tonnes for the month of February 2016, as against 64,515 tonnes in the same month last year.
The decline was due to sustained higher prices of the domestic soybean, which made meal production costly, thereby making it unviable to compete globally.
Currently, FOB/FAS Indian soybean meal is quoted at $480 per tonne against Argentina origin soybean meal CIF Rotterdam at $321 per tonne. Indian soybean meal is out priced by about $160 per tonne in the international market.
Davish Jain, Chairman of The Soybean Processors’ Association of India (SOPA), Indore, maintained that the rising cost has made it unviable to compete globally.
“We are completely out-priced by global competitors. Crushing activity has reduced and several millers have closed their operations because of the disparity in prices,” said Jain.
So far, during the current financial year up to February 2016, soya meal exports stood at 70,392 tonnes as compared to 5,99,818 tonnes in the same period last year, showing a drop of 88.26 per cent.
At Indore spot market, soya meal prices have come down from ?39,250 per tonne in May 2015 to about ?32,800 by February 2016. However, it continues to be costlier to export it to the key markets like Japan, the US and Iran, where the Indian soya meal commanded almost monopoly.
Meanwhile, in the current oil year (October 2015-September 2016), total exports of soya meal till February 2016 stood at 27,647 tonnes, as against 5,02,958 tonnes last year, down by 94.50 per cent.
Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) data put the total oil meal exports for February 2016 at 53,866 tonnes, as compared to 208,499 tonnes in the same month last year, indicating a drop of 47 per cent. Raising its concerns about dipping exports and its impact on crushing activity, the SEA noted that capacity utilisation has touched its lowest, and that the industry was experiencing a tough time with many plants operating at low capacity or even closing down.
The overall export of oil meals during the April 2015-February 2016 period, fell 52 per cent to 1,092,905 tonnes, against 2,256,436 tonnes during the same period of the last year. The same was 3,969,903 tonnes in 2013-14, a SEA statement said.
Rapeseed meal exports have also reduced to one-third of last year primarily due to high cost. Average FOB price continued to be higher for rapeseed meal which stood at $304 per tonne in February, which was $253 in March last year.
Among the oil meal complex, castorseed meal had encouraging export numbers, with growth registered over the last month. Castorseed meal exports grew to 414,311 tonnes in the April-February period, against 386,831 in same period last year.
Source :.thehindubusinessline.com
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