This situation therefore, calls for processing of non-traditional sources like rice bran, minor oilseeds and cottonseed, which according to The Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) would help the processing units to keep their plants running and reduce overheads in difficult times.

"The dry spell during the last lap of the monsoon season has negated the expectation of the good kharif (oilseeds) crop, which was based on a handsome increase in areas sown and the timely onset of the monsoon", said SEA president Sandeep Bajoria.

"This kharif oilseed production will fall sharply below the target fixed by the government, and will have serious impact on the raw material (for oilmillers) availability to the industry". Accordingly, it would be better if the processing units concentrate on processing of non-traditional sources like rice bran, minor oilseeds and cotton seed".

In order to assess the kharif oilseeds crop and its impact on the following months this season, the Tamil Nadu Oil and Seeds Association (TNOSA) will organise the 38th all India convention on oilseeds, oil trade and industry in Chennai on November 11 and 12 against the background of the shortfall of production of edible oil and the import of edible oils to bridge the demand-supply gap.

"The convention would provide an effective forum for the oil trade and industry to assess the present state of production of oilseeds, and discuss various steps to improve and develop this trade and industry", TNOSA chairman and managing director K Paramasivam said.

According to Paramsivam, oilseed production in the country had fallen by 40 per cent in the last two years. During 1999-2000, the country had imported 42 lakh tonnes of oil seeds, and if this trend continued the country would be totally dependent on imports for oil seeds in the near future, leading to prices shooting up.

In Asia, only India, Pakistan and China were big importers of oils, but China has over a year, shifted to importing only oilseeds so as to protect its oilseeds crushing industry and also the labour in that sector.

India lacks infrastructure to crush large quantities of oilseeds, and therefore, has to import large quantities of edible oils from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Recently, the government has been indicating that there might be import duty on edible oils, but there are no signals whether or not the government will permit import of oilseeds.The oilseeds crushing industry has been demanding the nod from the government to import oilseeds, to meet the demand-supply gap for this vital commodity.