Oilmeals export fell 67 per cent to 1.7 lakh tonne in December with Indian products being uncompetitive in the global market, according to industry body SEA.
In a statement, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said 1,70,338 tonne of oilmeals were exported in December 2021 compared to 5,16,006 tonne in the year-ago period.
The fall in exports is mainly due to decline in export of soybean and rapeseed meal, it added.
The overall export of oilmeals during April-December 2021 fell 28 per cent at 17,66,687 tonne as compared to 24,67,564 tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year.
''Soybean crush margins in India are currently squeezed by pressure on meal prices and relatively high price expectation of farmers for soybean seed which is currently quoted over Rs 6,300 per quintal,'' SEA said.
At present, the association pointed out that India is outpriced for soybean meal export.
The prices of ex. Kandla are quoted at $750 against Brazil origin $535 and Argentina $525 ex. Rotterdam.
''India is unlikely to be competitive for export in next two to three months due to high price of domestic soybean seed,'' SEA said.
The lesser crushing of soybean has also resulted in higher import of crude soybean oil.
In case of rapeseed, SEA said the seeds are not available for crushing, affecting export of rapeseed meal in the last two months.
New rapeseed crop will only be available from end of February or early of March for crushing.
Ricebran extraction is performing better due to higher demand from Vietnam and Bangladesh and the castormeal export performance has been more or less the same.
Exports of oilmeals to South Korea fell 32 per cent to 4,65,699 tonne during April-December 2021 from 6,80,791 tonne in the year-ago period. However, exports to Vietnam rose 29 per cent to 4,22,624 tonne from 3,28,680 tonne.
(With inputs from PTI)
