India's March oilmeal exports slumped 34 percent from a year earlier, falling for the fifth straight month, due to weak demand from Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and China, a trade body said. However, traders expected a reversal in the trend in 1-2 months, if last month's supply disruption resurfaces in Argentina.
Asian soyameal buyers, heavily dependent on Argentine supplies this year, could find themselves scrambling for alternatives if the port workers' strike threatens shipments from the world's biggest exporter of the feed ingredient.
Exports of oilmeal fell to 224,407 tonnes from 338,000 tonnes a year ago, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEAI) said in a statement on Monday. The exports were 32 percent lower compared with February. Soyameal exports, which shared the bulk of sales, plummeted 27 percent to 163,666 tonnes in March from 224,639 tonnes a year earlier. The annual oilmeal exports in 2009/10 (April-March) were 3.2 million tonnes, down 41 percent from 5.4 million tonnes a year ago.
"This is the lowest export of oilmeals in the last five years due to lower crushing and disparity in the last few months," said B.V. Mehta, executive director at SEAI. India's oilmeal prices have risen after the worst monsoon in 37 years hit the summer-sown oilseed crop last year, reducing output. The Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade said India's output of summer-sown oilseeds fell 12.5 percent to 13.1 million tonnes in the crop year that began last July, mainly due to lower groundnut and soyabean output.