India's Ruchi Soyaa Industries expects its soyameal exports to rise by nearly 35 percent in 2008 on buoyant overseas demand, the firm's managing director said on Tuesday. "China has bought Indian soyameal. Our company has also sold some to China," Dinesh Shahra told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a three-day global palm oil conference organised by Bursa Malaysia.
"Good exports should help our earnings grow sharply," he added. Most sales of Indian soyameal to China were finalised around $410-$415 a tonne free on board, more than double offers around $200 a tonne at the start of the previous soyameal export season ending October 2007.
Shahra said Ruchi's soyameal exports would grow to around 1.2 million tonnes in 2009 from less than 900,000 tonnes last year. The company is expected to crush about 1.8 million tonnes of soyabeans this year, against 1.4 million tonnes last year. Ruchi accounts for about 15 percent of Indian soyameal exports.
India harvested a soyabean crop of about 9.5 million tonnes in 2007/08 (November-October), compared with 7.5 million in the previous crop season. But despite the bigger crop, Indian farmers were selling their produce at around 23 rupees a kg, about 50 percent more than what they received last year, as world prices of soyabean and soya oil have hit record highs, Shahra said.
"If prices stay at these levels, we may see farmers shifting acreage from sugarcane and maize in favour of soyabeans," he added. "We could see another 25 percent growth in domestic soyabean production next year." Ruchi Soyaa's net profit surged 59 percent to 594.7 million rupees in the October to December quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier, on surging domestic and overseas sales.