SOPA urges Govt once again to defer sale of soyabean by NAFED, NCCF till end June

Soya bean crop, harvested recently, being stored at the house of a farmer in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district.
| Photo Credit:
A_M_ FARUQUI

Amidst talk of NAFED and NCCF gearing up to off-load soyabean stocks in the open market, the trade body Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA) has requested the government once again to defer the sale of the oilseeds till the end of the upcoming sowing season.

Soyabean prices, which had recovered a bit in the recent past have started coming down amidst the talk of open market sale by the government agencies. The decline in prices ahead of the sowing season could discourage the farmers and impact the acreages.

In a letter to the Agriculture Secretary, the SOPA executive director, D N Pathak said the move to sell soyabean by NAFED and NCCF in the open market now will be disastrous for all the concerned and discourage farmers from taking up sowing.

“We now understand that NAFED and NCCF are again preparing to offload their socks in the open market through tender As a result of this move, the soybean prices have started falling again. We would again reiterate that selling soybeans before the sowing has ended sometime in June end, will be disastrous for all concerned and will cause a heavy losses to the Government and discourage the farmers. We would request that soybean stocks held by NAFD and NCCF may be sold only after the sowing has completed,” Pathak said in the letter.

Soyabean prices for almost the entire kharif 2024-25 marketing season have been ruling below the MSP due to factors such as poor demand and also under the influence of weak global prices.

Agencies such as NAFED and NCCF had procured soyabean at MSP to help farmers. SOPA estimates that the Government agencies may be holding around 20 lakh tonnes of soyabean.

Earlier, a couple of months ago, following the SOPA’s request, the Ministry had intervened and stopped the sale of soyabean in the open market by NAFED and NCCF.

“We are thankful to you for stopping sale of soybeans in the open market by NAFED and NCCF, to support soybean prices which have ruled much below MSP for almost entire current sason. This move caused upward movement in soybean prices which increased by almost Rs 4000 per ton after the announcement that NAFED will not be selling the stock before the sowing starts in June this year. We were expecting that the prices would recover further in the next two months,” Pathak said in the letter.

Pathak said the earlier decision to postpone the sale was beneficial all the concerned as farmers were getting a higher price. “The sowing of soybean which was feared to fall because of low pries will now be normal and above all, NAFED and NCCF, who were incurring a loss of almost Rs 15000 per ton, would be getting a much higher price, reducing their losses substantially,” Pathak said.

Published on April 16, 2025