The decks are being cleared to allow import of oilseeds after a gap of almost 18 years. However, the import is likely to be permitted only for crushing purposes and not for sowing. If the policy is ultimately cleared, it will meet a long-standing demand of the oilseeds processing industry that the country should be importing oilseeds rather than oils.Recently, the agriculture ministry decided to form a sub-committee to look into aspects relating to imports of oilseeds for crushing purposes. The three-member sub-committee is likely to submit is recommendations by early April. The report will look into the issue of plant quarantine which will be the deciding factor for allowing import of these oilseeds.
A meeting was recently chaired by KM Chadhha, joint secretary (plant protection), ministry of agriculture. The issue of imports of oilseeds and oil-bearing materials was discussed at length and the quarantine officials confirmed that there would not be any problem from the plant quarantine angle for importsof ricebran and its oilcake.
Currently, India exports 4.3 million tonnes of oilmeals, annually bringing in $875 million of foreign exchange. Thus, the plan to import oilseeds (for crushing pursposes only) will further give a boost to the export potential. Imports of oilseeds and oil-bearing materials (like oilcakes) are banned through an umbrella order in the belief that imports may also bring in some disease spreading pests that could disturb/destroy the local crop of oilseeds. However, the import of edible oil is allowed freely under open general licence.
The ban order will be reversed if the recommendations of the proposed three-member committee are positive. The committee will look into pest risk analysis (PRA) in respect of soyabean, sunflowerseed and rapeseed, and may well recommend imports of these oilseeds. These oilseeds are mainly used for crushing purposes, the extractions of which are then used as protein material for animalfeed.
The oil extracted is then marketed in the open market. Thus,there is no fear of virus-generating pests also being imported with their imports. The intention of setting up the committee is itself the first positive step by the government to consider permitting imports of oil-bearing materials in the country, industry sources say.
A decision to allow import of oilseeds will bail out the raw material-strapped oil crushing industry in a country that boasts of a large oil-crushing capacity. The country has about 15,000 oil mills spread across the country, over 600 solvent extraction plants, 300 vegetable oil refineries and 175 hydrogenation plants. The mammoth crushing capacity in country churns out 70 to 75 lakh tonnes of vegetable oil annually.
The average utilisation of installed capacity is somewhere around 35-40 per cent, which means that a large 60 per cent capacity remains unutilised for want of raw material--oilseeds. The country has not yet attained world-level average yields in oilseed production. It lags far behind despite the fact that the potential hasbeen underutilised.
The current oilseeds productivity in India is 851 kg per hectare against the world average of about 2,500 kg per hectare. The irony is there has not been any attempt to increase the yield.
According to trade circles, there was a tussle between the commerce ministry and the agricultural ministry on the issue of permitting oilseeds import. While the commerce ministry was in favour of oilseed imports, the agriculture ministry had raised the single issue of quarantine -- meaning the imported seeds could be contaminated and bear diseases.
ICAR scientists have till now believed that the imported oilseeds might contain inherent pests or diseases that may go into sowing. But traders say this is only an excuse to prevent imports. They are of the view that initially imports could be confined to ricebran, sunflowerseed, rapeseed `00' variety and other oil-bearing material, which are mostly byproducts of oil-bearing seeds and do not go into sowing. These products do not fall under high plantquarantine risk and thus are safe to import. It seems that this argument has found favour with the government.
As far as quarantine issue is concerned, traders say the country did not face any problem during the three-year period of the Janata government (from 1977 to 1979) when oilseeds were permitted to be imported.
Moreover, Japan and other European countries like Holland and Germany are still importing various kinds of oilseeds like soyabean, rape and linseed. A major benefit of permitting imports of oilseeds is that it will boost the export effort. After the oil is extracted, the residual product -- oilcakes and oilmeals -- can be exported. India can carve a niche for itself in the export of oilmeals and oilcakes, which has tremendous demand overseas. The products are used as animalfeed globally.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
