India: Oilmeals Exports Dips In February

Export of oilmeals from India during February this year has dropped by 47% in comparison to February 2017 to 161,969 tonnes from 305,457 tonnes, according to data released by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA). The overall export of oilmeals during April 2017 to February 2018 was provisionally is reported at 2,677,536 tonnes compared to 1,714,984 tonnes during the same period of last year – an increase of 56%.

In November 2017, government had raised the import duty on edible oils by 12.5% to 15% across the board and increased MEIS on soybean meal to 7% from 5%. “These steps made Indian oilmeal more competitive in the world market and resulted in larger export of oilmeals during current year,” SEA said. “After two difficult years, export of oilmeals has revived in the current year, but still lower than earlier years, when India used to export annually over 40 lakh tons to 45 lakh tons of oilmeals,” it added.

During the April 2017-February 2018 period, oilmeal exported to Vietnam was reported at 564,091 tonnes (compared to 323,297 tonnes in the same year-ago period) consisting of 42,456 tonne of soybean meal, 84,788 tonne of rapeseed meal and 436,847 tonnes of de-oiled rice bran extraction. South Korea imported 756,946 tonnes (514,702- tonnes), consisting 267,360 tonnes of rapeseed meal, 459,414 tonnes of castor meal and 30,172 tonne of soybean meal.

European countries were the major importers of Indian soybean meal. France imported 141,948 tonne of oilmeals compared to 208,489 tonnes, consisting of 136,519 tonnes of soybean meal and 5,429 tonnes of castor meal. Rest of the European countries imported 341,145 tonnes of oilmeals, mainly soybean meal.