Likelihood of India Importing Soybean Beginning 2015
Date : September 20, 2011
Number of Views : 229
Domestic demand for soybeans in India, fueled by a growing population and economic wealth in the world's fifth-largest producer, will result in the country becoming a net importer by 2015, the United Soybean Board said Monday.
India is the world's fifth-biggest soybean producer after the United States, Brazil, Argentina and China, and it contributes about 5 per cent to global output.
"Long-term, India has got a shot," international marketing chairman of producers' lobby group, United Soybean Board, told. "I'm talking 2015, that they could actually start importing soybeans for the first time.
"It's due to population growth, economy growing, people moving into the middle class, and their own production being limited as far as their land-base."
India's domestic demand driven economy grew 7.7 per cent in the April-June period, its weakest pace in six quarters, but outperformed even gloomier predictions.
India's soybean output in 2011/12 is likely to rise 10.5 per cent to 10.5 million tonnes as farmers plant a larger area with the crop and rains are adequate, a senior industry official said last month.
The country's soymeal export is likely to be 4.1 million tonnes in the current crop year ending in September, sharply higher than 2.2 million tonnes a year ago.
"Everybody has been looking at India for many years, and they've been self-sufficient and an exporter of beans into that Asian market," he said.
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