Onion and soyabean farmers demand measures to boost exports

As prices of onions and soyabean continue to fall in the Indian market, industry and farmers’ associations have increased pressure on the government to extend more support by reducing export duty on onions and offering incentives for export of soybean meal, a by-product of the process of extracting oil from soyabean.

India has earlier increased the import duty on cooking oils by nearly 20% to support the soyabean prices in the domestic market, which now rule below the minimum support levels (MSP).

"The soybean farmers in Maharashtra are currently facing losses due to the drastic fall in prices. The permission to produce ethanol from maize and rice has pumped additional 20 lakh metric tonnes of DOC (de-oiled cake), resulting in further drop in soybean DOC," said Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadanvis in a letter dated March 12 to home minister Amit Shah.


The Maharashtra government has backed the demand for export subsidy for soyabean meal.

"Export promotion subsidies can provide the necessary relief to the soybean farmers," said Pasha Patel, chairman of Maharashtra State Agricultural Price Commission.

Data shared by the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) shows that overall export of oilmeals for the month of February 2025 stood at 3.30 lakh tonnes, down by 36% from a year ago.

According to SEA data, export of soyabean meal in the first five months of the oil year October to September was down by 23% at 13.47 lakh tonnes.

However, a section of the trade and farmers has pointed out that the majority of the soyabean farmers have already sold their produce.

Onion growers and exporters have alerted the central and state governments about the estimated 26.5% increase in acreage of late kharif onion crop and about 20% increase in the acreage of rabi onion crop.

According to industry estimates, India's onion exports in the first nine months of 2023-24 was nearly 52% lower compared with same period of 2022-23.