| Widespread rains in key
oilseed growing central and western regions have improved
crop prospects, but production will be much lower than
last winter’s record output, traders said on Tuesday.
'The damage has been undone to a large extent,' Rajesh
Agarwal, chairman of Soyabean Processors Association
of India said from Indore and added 'The rainfall during
the past week was very timely and now we can hope for
a decent output.'
The June-September south-west monsoon rains arrived
over the southern Kerala coast ahead of schedule. But
the sowing month of July was mainly dry, prompting fears
of a poor oilseed output.
Soyabean and groundnut are the country’s main
winter oilseed crops, for which sowing takes place in
June/July and harvesting begins in September. Sunflower,
castor and sesamum are also produced in small quantities
during the season. India, the world’s largest
edible oil importer, buys mainly palm and soya oils
from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Argentina.
Weather officials said Monday the dry north-west region
was likely to receive increased rainfall this week as
the monsoon picks up. Traders said it was too early
to give an estimate of the output, but the country could
get a winter oilseed output of around 11 to 12m tonnes,
which is the normal production, if the rains were good
in August and September.
Farmers produced a record 13.9m tonnes of oilseeds
during the ’03 winter season, helped by the best
monsoon in a decade. |
