Export of oilmeal, used as cattle and poultry feed, more than doubled to 7.04 lakh tonnes in February, driven by recovery in soyabean meal shipments and better crushing margins.
The shipments stood at 3,29,448 tonnes in the same month last year, the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said in a statement today.
“During the last five months, recovery in soyabean meal exports coupled with good crushing margins and better oil prices boosted the exports,” the SEA Executive Director, Mr B.V. Mehta, said.
Out of 7,03,400 tonnes of oilmeal exported from the country in February, the share of soyabean meal was maximum at 5,40,360 tonnes, followed by rape mustard seed meal at 1,47,655 tonnes, castormeal at 13,110 tonnes and groundnut extraction at 1,475 tonnes and rice bran at 800 tonnes.
Oilmeal shipments to South East Asia alone stood at 5.38 lakh tonnes, West Asia at 1.11 lakh tonnes and Europe at 53,605 tonnes last month, the SEA data showed.
Soybean meal exports rose to 5.4 lakh tonnes last month from 2.2 lakh tonnes in February 2010, it said, adding that shipment to the European market is expected to rise in the coming months.
The overall export of oilmeal till Feburary this fiscal also reported a jump of 50 per cent to 44.91 lakh tonnes against 30 lakh tonnes in the same period last year, it said.
Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and Indonesia are the major destinations where India exports oilmeal. It also ships the commodity to neighbouring Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.