By Mayank Bhardwaj
NEW DELHI- India will buy soybeans from farmers of the central state of Madhya Pradesh at state-set support prices to help growers reeling from a crash in domestic rates for the oilseed, a government statement said on Wednesday.
India uses soybeans to manufacture soyoil, which helps the country cut its hefty edible oil imports, while the by-product soymeal is used for animal feed and exported mainly to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Farmers plant soybeans during the monsoon season in June and July and harvest the main summer oilseed crop from October.
Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accepted a request from Madhya Pradesh to buy soybeans at the government-mandated support price, the statement said.
Prices of soybeans have dropped well below the government-set support price of 4,892 rupees ($58.27) per 100 kg, angering farmers.
Earlier, the government agreed to buy soybeans from growers of the western state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh together account for nearly 70 percent of India’s total soybean output.
The government would also buy soybeans in the southern state of Karnataka.
Millions of farmers are seen as an influential voting bloc in India, the world’s leading producer of an array of crops such as rice, wheat, cane and cotton.
A spate of export curbs imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has already fueled anger among farmers.
After Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party suffered losses in rural constituencies in this year’s general election, the government is keen to placate farmers ahead of state assembly elections in states such as Haryana and Maharashtra, political commentators say.
Meanwhile, India’s palm oil imports in August fell more than a quarter from a month ago, primarily driven by sufficient domestic stocks and negative margins that discouraged refiners from purchasing more of the tropical oil, a leading trade body said on Thursday.
Lower purchases by the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils could lead to higher stocks of palm oil in key producers Indonesia and Malaysia, weighing on benchmark futures
India’s palm oil imports fell 26 percent in August from July to 797,482 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
Imports of soyoil rose 16 percent to 454,639 tons, while sunflower oil imports fell 22.5 percent to 284,108 tons, it said.
The drop in imports of palm and sunflower oils brought down the country’s total edible oil imports by 17 percent to 1.53 million tons.
“Refiners are shifting to soyoil from palm oil, as palm oil has become more expensive for Indian buyers in comparison to soyoil,” said a New-Delhi based dealer with a global trade house. – Reuters
