Oilmeal exports down 94% at 13,716 tonnes in October

NEW DELHI: Oilmeal exports have declined 94 per cent to 13,716 tonnes in October due to sharp fall in soyabean meal and rapeseed meal shipments, industry body SEA said today.

The country had shipped 238,703 tonnes of oilmeals, used as animal feed, in the same period last year.

The overall export of oilmeals during April-Oct, 2015 reduced 40 per cent at 763,113 tonnes compared to 1,263,073 tonnes during the same period last year, Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said in a statement.

"The export of soyabean meal is at a historical low during current year and reduced month by month at 46,980 tonnes compared to 140,098 tonnes during the first seven months of the last financial year",it said.

Similarly rapeseed meal export is also reduced to 1/3rd of last year. Also, capacity utilisation is at the lowest, it added.

"Industry is passing through a very though time and many plants are shut down due to disparity in crushing and export," the industry body said.

The robust pace of soyabean crushings and ample soyabean supplies both in the northern and the southern hemisphere kept world market prices of soya meal under pressure and sharply below the year-earlier levels, it said.