Major commodity processors more into crushing oilseeds
Local firms are steadily expanding their oilseed crushing capacities, not simply to get more oil but to also focus on a growing demand for soybean meals among feed manufacturers, industry leaders said.
Two big commodity importers and processors -- City Group and Meghna Band of Industries (MGI) - have enlarged their skills over threefold previously one year.
Another major commodity trader, TK Group of Industries, is building facilities to foray into the annual soybean meal market of roughly 15 lakh tonnes for the making of poultry, fish and animal feed by dedicated mills.
"We expect to get started on crushing in our mills by June," said its director for finance, Md Shafiul Ather Taslim.
It's the fourth firm to look at the mashing functions to retain competitiveness in the soybean oil market through the resulting cut in production cost.
Concurrently, gleam market for soybean meals, he said. The TK mill will have a daily seed pressing capacity of 2,500 tonnes.
This will take the combined ability of local mills to 18,500 tonnes, according to industry operators.
Earlier in October this past year, City Group enlarged their proportion to 7,000 tonnes from 2,000 tonnes.
The MGI augmented to 5,500 tonnes earlier this season from its previous 2,500 tonnes.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its latest report on oilseeds said four countries, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, either took to squeezing soybean or expanding capacities during the past 15 years.
Consequently, Bangladesh's oilseed imports jumped to 30 lakh tonnes in fiscal 2019-20 from practically 10,000 tonnes 3 years ago, USDA data shows.
"This has reduced imports of soybean meal," said Mostafa Kamal, chairman and managing director of MGI. He said the entry of more mills in to the business would create jobs.
Bangladesh imports most of its dependence on oilseeds, such as soybean, as local production is insignificant.
This gives further lift to soaring imports.
In the past 10 months to October this year, oilseed imports soared 36 per cent year-on-year to 26.81 lakh tonnes, shows data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Biswajit Saha, director, corporate and regulatory affairs of City Group, said the increase in imports was due to the expansion of crushing skills to derive soybean and sunflower oils apart from supplying soybean meals.
"Consumption of soybean oil has increased," he said, adding that soybean oil accounts for a third of the gross annual consumption of edible oil in the country.
"The marketplace for soybean meal can be growing gradually," he said, adding that the daily demand for the feed ingredient was 13,000 tonnes.
Saha also said that local mills now face increased competition from imported soybean meals as no duty was levied.
He demanded it be imposed to safeguard local seed crushing mills.
Md Ahsanuzzaman, general secretary of the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh, said the entry of more players should increase competition in the soybean meal market, which stands at around 15-20 lakh tonnes annually.
At the same, the import benefit for both soybean and its own associated meals should continue steadily to ensure that feed makers obtain ingredients at a competitive rate, he said.
