Jan 7th, 2005: KOLKATA - With bird flu scare dissipating in South-East Asia, import of oilmeal by the region from India has started picking up.
Buoyed by the rising demand for oilmeal from these countries, India’s export of oilmeal to the region increased 23% to 24 lakh tonne in April-December ’05 against 19.5 lakh tonne in the corresponding period last year. Improvement in India’s trade relations with Pakistan also has contributed to the growth.
The overall growth has been largely fuelled by soyameal, which accounted for a 67% share in the total oilmeal export. Since soyameal is largely used as poultry feed, drop in the cases of bird flu in South-East Asia since October ’05, has pushed up its exports by 28% to 16 lakh tonne in the first nine months of ’05-06.
Industry sources said with bird flu scare dying down, traditional buyers of Indian soyameal including China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand have started buying more of it. China has booked some 36,000 tonnes of Indian soyameal each for delivery in January and February, at a cost, insurance, freight (C&F) rate of $225-$230 per tonne. Vietnam is also reported to have clinched a deal with Indian exporters to purchase some 10,500 tonne of soymeal for January shipment, an official of the Soybean Processors’ Association of India (Sopa) said.
India produces around 4.5m tonnes of soyameal annually and exports roughly 2.3-2.5m tonne. However seeing a pick-up in the demand for Indian soyameal from its traditional buyers, Sopa is optimistic of higher export this year. Though the US, Argentina and Brazil are the largest exporters of soyameal worldwide, Asian buyers prefer the Indian variety due to lower freight rates.
Meantime, India has sold an average of 20,000 tonnes of soyameal per month to Pakistan in the past 9 months. This would have been more had there been better availability of rail wagons. However, it is reassuring that Bangladesh too these days is showing interest to buy soyameal from India,” the official said.
Strong demand for Indian soyameal from its buyers has eventually jacked up its free on board (FOB) price from $182 per tonne in September to $225 per tonne for delivery in January this year.
