Driven by soyabean meal and groundnut meal, India's oilmeal exports have recorded a sharp surge for the month of January 2017. The export of oilmeals during January 2017 has more than doubled and was reported at 165,980 tonnes compared to 71,890 tonnes, up by 131 per cent. The surge is seen as the revival of India's oilmeal exports.

The overall export of oilmeals during April 2016 to January 2017 is reported at 1,335,894 tons compared to 1,300,465 tons during the same period of last year, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) noted in the latest update on oilmeal exports.

Among the major destinations for Indian oilmeals are South Korea, Vietnam and France, which imported 461,262 tonnes, 213,920 tonnes and 126,411 tonnes of oilmeals, respectively, including soyabean meal, castor meal, rapeseed meal and de-oiled rice bran, among others.

In December, India's soyabean meal exports were recorded the highest for the 2016-17 period, at 241,250 tonnes. However, in January 2017, soyabean meal exports dropped to 155,160 as against the previous month, but continued to hold the largest, about 90 per cent share in the total oilmeal exports.