India's soyameal exports in May sank 91.5 percent from a year earlier to their lowest in 20 months, a trade body said on Friday, as higher soyameal prices prompted buyers to turn to competitor south America. Soyameal exports from India, Asia's top exporter of oilmeal, fell sharply to 8,226 tonnes in May from 96,492 tonnes a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
Limited supplies of soyabeans for crushing in local markets mean that even in June soyameal prices will stay high, hitting shipments, industry officials said. "Still there is no parity for exports. Indian prices are way above global levels," said Rajesh Agrawal, chief co-ordinator at the Soyabean Processors Association of India.
India is now offering soyameal at around $702 per tonne, against $512 to $520 for supplies from South America. The average Indian soyameal export price rose to $710 per tonne, free on board, in May from $666 a month ago, data from the SEA showed, reflecting tight local supplies of soyabean. Soyabean is crushed to produce soyabean oil and soyameal, which is used as animal feed.
India's soyabean output is estimated to have dropped 4.4 percent to 10.23 million tonnes in the 2013/14 year, due to crop-damaging rains during the harvest. Iran, Japan and Thailand are usually key buyers of Indian soyameal, but are not currently showing buying interest, said an exporter based in Indore in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
The plunge in soyameal exports nearly halved India's total oilmeal exports to 153,761 tonnes in May, though rapeseed meal exports rose nearly 9 percent to 95,847 tonnes, on robust demand from South Korea and Vietnam. The south Asian country's castor seed meal exports in May fell more than half from a year earlier, to 49,288 tonnes. India's oilmeal exports dropped 9.8 percent from a year ago to 4.3 million tonnes in the fiscal year that ended in March 2014. Soyameal sales make up nearly two-thirds of India's annual oilmeal exports.
