India soybean crushing slumps over 26% amid jump in meal import, consumption

The soybean crushing in India has decreased by more than 26% on year to 6 million mt in June for marketing year 2021-22 (October-September), report by Soybean Processors Association of India showed on July 12.

The raw bean crushing despite being maintained at previous month level of 0.7 million mt in June, it was still lower by more than 7.69% over June 2021.

Meanwhile, soybean meal export in India jumped to 0.45 million mt over year from 0.015 million mt. The soybean meal domestic consumption for food also surged by more than 33% on year to 0.59 million mt.

Despite a slight recovery in May, farmers were likely to continue hold a major part of their crop in the anticipation of better prices, market sources said.

However, import orders for GM soybean meal have further dampened domestic prices for soybean and its derivative, which might extend the period of hoarding and production of derivatives going forward, the sources said.

This slump in raw bean crushing was accompanied by a similar decline in soybean meal production and export of the derivative over year as Indian meal derivative continue to remain outpriced in international market.

As per sources, Indian soybean meal FOB Kandla was at $720/mt, while Argentinian soybean meal CIF Rotterdam was at $532/mt and Brazil at $525/mt, it said.

While soybean meal production from October-June declined by more than 27% to 4.78 million mt, the export of same also crashed by more than 69% to 0.56 million mt.

In May, the government approved the import of 550,000 mt GM soymeal by Sept. 30 to help the domestic poultry industry combat high feed prices.