Oilmeal exports drop by 22% in December: Industry body

Export of oilmeal, used as animal feed, dropped by 22 per cent to 2.36 lakh tonnes in December from 3.01 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, but total shipments this fiscal are likely to remain higher, industry body SEA said today.

Oilmeal shipments during April-December of the current fiscal rose to 20.90 lakh tonnes from 11.69 lakh tonnes in the same period of the last year, it said in a statement.

The recent government initiatives have made "Indian oilmeal more competitive in the world market and may result in larger export of oilmeal during the current year," Mumbai- based Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said.


The government has hiked import duty on edible oils and raised incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) for soyabean meal to 7 per cent from 5 per cent.

SEA said that oilmeal export has revived this year, after two difficult years, but is still lower than earlier years when annual shipments stood at 40 to 45 lakh tonnes.

Of the total oilmeal exported in December 2017, soybean meal stood at 1.68 lakh tonnes, rapeseed meal at 32,832 tonnes , groundnut meal at 5,015 tonnes, ricebran extraction at 5,200 tonnes and castorseed meal at 24,052 tonnes.

Vietnam, South Korea, France, Bangladesh, Thailand and Germany are major export destinations.