Oilseed Meal Exports from India Climb on Bigger Crop.

Oilseed meal exports from India, Asia’s top supplier of animal feed made from soybeans, surged 42 percent last month after farmers boosted sales to benefit from a rally in prices, a processors’ group said.

Sales to Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and others increased to 492,740 metric tons, compared with 346,859 tons a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said in an e-mailed statement today. Shipments in the eight months through November rose 26 percent to 2.38 million tons, it said.

Soybean-meal futures in Chicago gained for a fifth straight month in November after the oilseeds surged on increased import demand from China and on concerns that soybean planting may be curbed in Brazil, the world’s second-biggest producer after the U.S. India’s soybean-meal exports this year may jump 49 percent to 3.5 million tons in the year that began Oct. 1, according to the Soybean Processors Association of India.

Soybean meal exports last month surged 49 percent to 443,488 tons, and shipments in the April-November period totaled 1.7 million tons, compared with 1.16 million a year earlier, the group said.

India exports the majority of its soybean meal, mixed with poultry feed as a form of protein to aid the growth of birds and cattle. Meal from the South Asian country is preferred by buyers in Southeast Asia, according to the processors association.

Soybean output in India may reach a record 10.1 million tons this crop year as average yield per hectare will increase 8 percent to 1,089 kilograms because of a stronger-than-normal monsoon, the processors’ group said on Sept. 30.

Soybean meal for January delivery fell 0.3 percent to $350.50 a ton on the Chicago Board of Trade at 3:40 p.m. in Singapore.

Source : bloomberg.com