BLBG: Soybean Crop in India May Reach Record, Boosting Meal Exports, Adani Says
Soybean output in India, Asia’s top supplier of animal feed made from the oilseed, may increase to a record as above-normal rainfall boost yields, according to Adani Enterprises Ltd., the country’s biggest trader of farm goods.
Production may exceed 10 million metric tons in the year starting Oct. 1, Atul Chaturvedi, president of Adani, said in a phone interview from Ahmedabad. Soybean meal exports will top 4 million tons next year and shipments may be about 2 million tons in the four months ending January as buyers from Southeast Asia step up purchases from India, he said.
“The soybean crop is shaping up very well and I won’t be surprised if production reaches 11 million tons,” Chaturvedi said. A bigger oilseeds crop next year may slow growth in the nation’s vegetable oil imports, he said.
India, the top buyer of vegetable oils after China, may import a record amount of soybean and palm oils for a fourth year, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India. Purchases may be 9.5 million tons in the year starting Nov. 1, the processors’ group said this week.
Chaturvedi is scheduled to speak an industry conference in Mumbai tomorrow.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham in Mumbai at tabraham4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net