NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has no current plans to allow extra imports of soymeal, a key animal feed, its trade minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday, despite calls from livestock breeders for more shipments to cool high prices.
Last month, the All India Poultry Breeders Association asked the government to allow imports of 550,000 tonnes of the feedstuff.
“There is no proposal with the government regarding the imports,” Goyal said in a tweet, referring to overseas purchases of soymeal.
The government in August relaxed import rules to allow its first shipments of 1.2 million tonnes of genetically modified (GM) soymeal to help the poultry industry after animal feed prices tripled in a year to a record high.
But traders managed to sign deals to import only about 650,000 tonnes of soymeal against the permitted 1.2 million before the deadline for overseas purchases expired on Oct. 31.
The government takes into account the impact on local prices before entertaining requests for more imports of soymeal to avoid losses to farmers.
(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Jan Harvey)
