At a time when the global slowdown is beginning to hurt the country’s exports comes the stellar performance by the entire oilseeds-based complex, including oilmeals and oils. In fiscal 2008-09, oilmeals have turned out to be the highest export earner in the agricultural commodities basket — Rs 8,341 crore from 54.2 lakh tonnes compared with Rs 7,109 crore from a similar quantity in the previous year. Among other oilseed-based items to have performed creditably is castor oil with export earnings more than doubling to Rs 1,688 crore (Rs 757 crore). Groundnut and sesameseed exports too have fetched an estimated Rs 1,600 crore. To be sure, the sharp depreciation in the rupee has helped improve export earnings in the last few months.
The performance is noteworthy, especially in the context of a 20 per cent overall decline in indigenous oilseeds output which resulted in tight raw material availability. Importantly, soyameal dominates the oilmeals export basket to the extent of 90 per cent by value and 80 per cent by volume. Such over-dependence on a single item is not desirable. It must be recognised that in many of the oilseeds-based products, India is not intrinsically competitive. Interestingly, soyameal has been singled out for a preferential treatment in the form of export incentive under Visesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana (Special Farm and Village Industry Scheme) to the exclusion of other meals. It may be possible to argue that the overall performance could have been even better had the export incentive been extended to all items. Export markets for our traditional feedstuffs like groundnut extraction, de-oiled rice-bran and cottonseed cake have been shrinking for reasons as varied as rising domestic demand and stringent quality conditions in importing countries. Issues of product quality — especially aflatoxin contamination of groundnut and cottonseed — have not received adequate attention from policymakers. Feed demand keeps rising as our domestic livestock industry continues to show robust growth. Feed users often complain that unrestrained oilmeal exports push their feed costs up and hurt them.
In addition to all this, indigenous oilseeds output continues to display wide variation year to year. If the trend of unsteady oilseed output is allowed to continue, there may be no ‘genuine’ export surplus of oilmeals in the coming years. The incongruence arising out of changes in domestic output and demand as also export availability and overseas demand needs to be ironed out systematically. These are issues that policymakers and industry leaders must grapple with. Without a clear roadmap for the future, the oilseeds sector may have a bumpy ride.
Source : Business Line