India's soyameal exports dropped in August to the lowest level in at least two years due to poor demand from Iran and rapidly falling soyabean stocks as the season draws to a close, a leading industry body said on Thursday. India, Asia's leading supplier of soyameal, exported just 10,005 tonnes of the animal feed in August, down 94 percent from a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said in a statement.
Soyameal forms the bulk of India's oilmeal exports. Soyabeans are crushed to produce vegetable oils and meal for animal feed. "Supplies are less and seed prices are so high in the domestic market that it is not profitable to crush and export soyameal," B.V. Mehta, executive director of SEA told Reuters. In August, Iran, the top buyer for India's soyameal since the start of the current fiscal year from April, bought just 4,218 tonnes against 150,761 tonnes in July, the data showed. "Demand from Iran has just disappeared. Maybe they are getting supplies from other cheaper origins," Mehta said.
Soyabean supplies are expected to improve from October, when the new season begins with the arrival of the fresh harvest. Indian farmers have so far planted soyabeans on 10.69 million hectares compared with 10.31 million hectares a year earlier, farm ministry data showed. India's total oilmeal exports fell 59 percent to 120,091 tonnes in August from a year earlier.
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