India is poised for a more than 45 percent jump in summer output of oilseeds due to favourable weather conditions, after reaping a record winter crop, traders and industry officials said on Thursday.
They said production of summer oilseeds, mainly mustard and groundnut, was expected to climb to around nine million tonnes from 6.15 million tonnes in the previous summer season.
"We had good soil moisture before the sowing and since then the spread of rains and temperatures have been perfect for the crops," B.V. Mehta, executive director of Solvent Extractors' Association of India, told Reuters.
India, the world's largest vegetable oil importer, normally produces around 7.5 million to 8.0 million tonnes of oilseeds during summer, but output fell in the 2003 summer season due to failure of the June-September monsoon in 2002.
A surge in oilseed production will cut into vegetable oil imports, which India buys mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Argentina.
In December, edible oil imports hit a five-year low of 235,000 tonnes and overall shipments in the oil year 2003/04 (November-October) are set to fall by about a million tonnes to 4.1 million tonnes, traders say.
Sowing for the summer crops starts in November and harvesting is done between February and April.
The country harvested its best winter oilseed crop of 14.24 million tonnes in 2003, helped by good monsoons. Soyabean and groundnut are the country's main winter oilseed crops, while mustard is the key summer crop.
The country's total mustard production in the coming summer is expected to be around 6.0 million tonnes against 3.6 million tonnes during the year-ago season.
India's desert state of Rajasthan, a major producer of mustard, is set to more than double output to 2.25 million tonnes from last year's 1.05 million tonnes.
Traders estimated production of groundnut at around 1.6 million tonnes compared to the normal 1.8 million tonnes. But the output will be higher than last year's 1.4 million tonnes.
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