India monsoon oilseeds output may decline
Sunday, 2 August 2009
NEW DELHI, Aug 1 (Bloomberg): India, the world's largest vegetable oil buyer after China, may produce fewer oilseeds as dry weather in the biggest growing areas reduced monsoon sowing of peanuts, soybeans and sesame seeds.
Production may be less than the 15.07 million metric tons estimated by the industry's largest trade group for the monsoon crop last year, Govindlal G. Patel, director of Dipak Enterprises, said in an interview yesterday. Patel, 70, has been trading oilseeds for more than four decades.
India's cooking oil imports may be 8.4 million tons in the year starting November, 5 per cent more than estimated for this year, Patel said. Higher purchases by the South Asian nation may help arrest a slide in the price of palm oil, which has declined 24 per cent since reaching a nine-month high in May. The tropical oil accounts for 90 per cent of India's edible oil bought abroad.
Oilseeds were planted on 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres) as of July 16, down from 11.03 million hectares at the same time last year, the agriculture ministry said last week. Farmers may pare area by as much as 800,000 hectares from 18.44 million hectares sown for the monsoon crop last year, because of inadequate rains, Patel said.
The monsoon crop, which provides more than 60 per cent of the oilseeds, is sown in June and harvested in mid-September.
October-delivery palm oil gained 1.9 per cent to 2,122 ringgit ($599) a ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange at 11:48 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur. The contract yesterday dropped 2.8 per cent, the largest decline in four days.
India's imports of crude palm oil jumped 66 per cent to 3.49 million tons in the eight months ended June, while purchases of soybean oil climbed 86 per cent to 660,504 tons, the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors' Association of India said July 14.
The country relies on imports to meet half its cooking oil demand. It buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil.
Production may be less than the 15.07 million metric tons estimated by the industry's largest trade group for the monsoon crop last year, Govindlal G. Patel, director of Dipak Enterprises, said in an interview yesterday. Patel, 70, has been trading oilseeds for more than four decades.
India's cooking oil imports may be 8.4 million tons in the year starting November, 5 per cent more than estimated for this year, Patel said. Higher purchases by the South Asian nation may help arrest a slide in the price of palm oil, which has declined 24 per cent since reaching a nine-month high in May. The tropical oil accounts for 90 per cent of India's edible oil bought abroad.
Oilseeds were planted on 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres) as of July 16, down from 11.03 million hectares at the same time last year, the agriculture ministry said last week. Farmers may pare area by as much as 800,000 hectares from 18.44 million hectares sown for the monsoon crop last year, because of inadequate rains, Patel said.
The monsoon crop, which provides more than 60 per cent of the oilseeds, is sown in June and harvested in mid-September.
October-delivery palm oil gained 1.9 per cent to 2,122 ringgit ($599) a ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange at 11:48 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur. The contract yesterday dropped 2.8 per cent, the largest decline in four days.
India's imports of crude palm oil jumped 66 per cent to 3.49 million tons in the eight months ended June, while purchases of soybean oil climbed 86 per cent to 660,504 tons, the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors' Association of India said July 14.
The country relies on imports to meet half its cooking oil demand. It buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil.