Detail

India

Oilseeds, oils and meals

Kharif oilcrops

01/06/2017

Consumption and marketing

Agricultural policy

Raised the minimum support prices for Kharif oilcrops, with a view to protect farmers from fresh price declines and to prevent a shift in plantings away from soybeans and other oilseeds to competing crops.

In India, market prices for soybeans and other oilseeds reportedly dropped below MSP levels. To protect farmers from the recent price declines and prevent a shift in plantings away from soybeans and other oilseeds to competing crops, the Government raised the MSPs for Kharif oilcrops by 4–10 percent and to renew the special bonuses reserved for crops characterized by widening domestic supply deficits. Public officials warned that buying oilcrops below the government-set prices would attract prosecution. Including bonuses, the MSPs for 2017/18 have been set as follows: soybeans INR 30 500 per tonne (USD 473), up 10 percent from last year’s level; groundnuts-in-shell INR 44 500 per tonne (USD 690), up 5.5 percent; sunflowerseed INR 41 000 per tonne (USD 635), up 3.8 percent; sesamum INR 53 000 per tonne (USD 821), up 6 percent; and nigerseed INR 40 500 (USD 627), up 5.9 percent. For comparison, the support prices for paddy, maize, pulses and cotton have been raised by, respectively, 5 percent, 4 percent, 7–8 percent, and 4 percent. Farmers and industry associations maintained that public market interventions continue to be insufficient to support the MSPs. They also renewed their calls for other remedial actions, in particular higher import duties on vegetable oils. Reportedly, the latest erosion in soybean market prices has been triggered by poor demand from local crushers and unusually large old-crop inventories, which essentially stem from uncompetitive prices of domestically produced soybean oil vis-