Targeted export volume for the year ending September 2008 are 4.5 million tonnes, but shortages on the world market have main importers now already seeking supplies. India competes with Brazil and Argentina for soybean meal sales to countries including China, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea.

Exporters are benefiting from prices which gained more than 70% at the Chicago Board of Trade in the past year, because US farmers planted the smallest area to soybeans in 12 years. India exported 3.5 million tonnes in the 2006/07 marketing year and has raised its export target to 4.5 million tonnes after the domestic soybean crop forecast was raised to 9.45 million tonnes from 8.87 million.

Indian soybean meal prices have almost doubled to around $400 a tonne, excluding freight costs, from a year earlier. European traders have contracted to buy as much as 100,000 tonnes of Indian soybean meal and Chinese firms are seeking more from India to take advantage of lower freight rates.

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