India May Export Record Soybean Meal as Rains Spur Planting

By Thomas Kutty Abraham


Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- India, Asia's biggest supplier of soybean meal, may ship a record quantity next year after rain in the biggest growing regions encouraged increased planting, a producers' group said.

Exports of meal, used as an animal feed, in the year starting October may surpass the 5 million metric ton estimate for this year, Rajesh Agrawal, a spokesman for the Soybean Processors Association of India said from the central city of Indore.

Increased sales from the South Asian country may help buyers in Vietnam, Japan, Thailand and South Korea lower reliance on more expensive supplies from the U.S., Argentina and Brazil. Soybeans, soybean oil and the meal made from the oilseed all rose to records this year after U.S. farmers planted the fewest acres in 12 years last season, raising costs for buyers of animal feed.

``India should have at least 15 percent more meal to export next year,'' Atul Chaturvedi, president at Adani Enterprises Ltd., an exporter, said in a phone interview from Ahmedabad. ``India is ideally placed to supply to most Southeast Asian buyers.''

Showers in the past two weeks over Maharashtra, the nation's second-biggest grower, spurred sowing, Agrawal said. The crop is in ``excellent'' condition in Madhya Pradesh after rain encouraged farmers to advance planting by three weeks, he said. The central state accounts for more than half of India's soybean output.

The oilseed was planted to 8.8 million hectares on July 31, 11 percent more than a year ago, according to the farm ministry. Output may rise as much as 20 percent next year from the 9.47 million tons expected this season, Chaturvedi said.

The Soybean Processors Association is scheduled to release its first forecast of the crop size next week.

Non-GM Beans

India, which grows non-genetically modified soybeans, sells more than 70 percent of its animal feed output, benefiting from low freight costs to Asian countries including China, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

Exports, including those to neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, totaled 5 million tons in the 10 months ended July compared with 3.5 million tons a year ago, Agrawal said. Soybean meal, India's largest meal export, is added to poultry feed as a form of protein to aid birds' growth.

Soybean meal traded in Chicago has fallen 26 percent from its July 3 record of $445.70 a ton as soybean prices slumped on speculation of bigger crops in the U.S. and China. In Chicago, soybean meal for December delivery rose 0.6 percent to $334.60 a ton at 9:40 a.m. today in Sydney.

``Prices will be under pressure in the near term as the largest producers are all forecast to have a bigger crop,'' Adani's Chaturvedi said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham in Mumbai at tabraham4@bloomberg.net