India benefits of non-GMO demand Japan and EU
India’s oil meals exports to Japan in FY11 jumped more than two-fold to 1.259 million tonnes as the latter prefers non-genetically modified (GM) crop produced by India, according to an industry body.
India had shipped 475,000 tonnes of oil meal (used as cattle and poultry feed) in FY10 fiscal, according to the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA).
He noted that India is basically a non-GM crop producer when it comes to oilseeds, while other major producing nations like Argentina, the US and Brazil largely produce GM crops.
Among the shipment of oil meals to Japan, the soy meal export have increased the most. Soy meal shipments in FY11 have increased by 169% to 1.241 million tonnes compared to 461,000 tonnes in the year-ago period.
"Japan is a good market for soy meal exports and I feel that we can achieve an average growth of 10% annually," Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA) coordinator Rajesh Agarwal told PTI.
EU import
Similarly, demand for Indian oil meals (soybean and rapeseed) in European Union also increased five-fold to 299,770 tonnes in FY11 compared to 58,489 tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year, Mehta added.
The soy meal exports to Europe in the past fiscal year have increased by more than six-fold to 211,389 tonnes as against 28,607 tonnes in the year-ago period.
"Though the export growth of soy meal is huge to Europe but the quantity is still less, however, it is a big market and there is good potential to increase the shipments," Agarwal said.
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