PUNE: India, which has been a traditional exporter of soyameal, had to import the commodity after many years. After wheat and maize, soyameal is the third commodity that India had to import as two back-to-back droughts have depleted production and deteriorated its quality.
“Three poultry aggregators from south have imported a total quantity of 10,000 tonne soya meal with 48% protein content from Ukraine, which will be sufficient to take care of our requirement for the next two months,” GB Sundararajan, managing director, Suguna Foods, said.
Despite an import duty of 15%, imported soyameal is cheaper than the domestic produce by 7.8%. The cost of domestic soyameal in Coimbtore, including transportation cost from Nagpur is Rs 41,000/tonne while the landed cost of imported soyameal including the import duty is Rs 38,000/tonne, said Sundararajan.
The NCDEX spot prices of soya meal in Indore mandi have increased by 15.4% in less than a month, jumping from Rs 32,050/tonne on March 3 to Rs 37,000/tonne on April 1. India does not allow import of Genetically Modified (GM) soya meal, while 90% of the soya meal available in the world is GM.
According to industry body Solvent Extractors Association of India, India’s soyameal exports have declined by 52% during the April 2015 to February 2016 period due to very high prices of domestic soyameal when compared with international prices.
India has become an island of high commodity prices, forcing industries to explore international markets, where prices are much lower. Incidentally, India had to import maize after 16 years. The private trade had imported wheat last year and is preparing to import it again this year after July as it reckons that production of the winter crop could be much lower than government estimates. “We think domestic prices can rally after July and India may have to import wheat,” said Rajiv Yadav, vice president (grains and oilseeds), Noble Agri.
