Indian oilseeds and soyaoil futures dropped on Friday on a strong rupee and as farmers accelerated sowing of summer-sown oilseeds. A strong rupee makes edible oil imports cheaper and also trims returns of oilmeal exporters. Indian farmers have cultivated summer-sown oilseeds on 7.4 million hectares as on July 3, compared to 1.47 million hectares a year ago.
The key August soyabean futures contract on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange ended 2 percent lower at 3,552 rupees per 100 kg, while July rapeseed contract fell 1.5 percent to 4,169 rupees per 100 kg. At 1229 GMT, the key August soyaoil contract was down 0.14 percent at 584.15 rupees per 10 kg.
Indian sugar mills have contracted to export 50,000 tonnes of white sugar to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan at $340-$345 a tonne, free-on-board, the first major deal in the past few months. The key October contract was quoted 0.64 percent higher at 2,203 rupees per 100 kg.