India, Asia's biggest supplier of soymeal, is likely to export up to 1 million tonnes of the animal feed to Iran in the year to September 2013, leading exporter Prestige Group said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Iran has emerged as one of the largest buyers of Indian meal this year, taking 600,000 tonnes between January and August.
"There were some payment issues with Iran and as a result of that not much has been exported since August," said Davish Jain, managing director of Prestige Group, a leading soybean processor based in central India.
"But all those issues have now been resolved and we are getting a flood of enquiries from Iran," he told reporters at a grains conference in Singapore.
Ruchi Soya, India's top soymeal exporter, has said exports to Iran could jump 60 percent to 800,000 tonnes in 2012/13 from 2011/12, since demand in the sanctions-hit country is robust and a payment mechanism using the rupee currency is working well.
India is likely to export up to 5 million tonnes of soymeal this marketing year, up nearly a fifth from 4.2 million tonnes a year ago, Jain said.
"We have had a slow start because farmers have been holding back beans, hoping for higher prices," he added. "But exports should start picking up and will rise because production is higher."
Last week industry officials said India's 2012/13 soymeal exports were likely to stay almost flat with a year ago, despite a bigger crop, as farmers held on to their stocks.
Indian soymeal exports will be strong in the next few months because of lower supplies from the drought-hit United States and South America.
Jain, whose company runs three soybean crushing plants in central India, estimated Indian soybean production this year at 11.5 million to 12.0 million tonnes.
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