Mustard Crop in India May Be Bigger Than Forecast on Weather

By Pratik Parija

Feb. (Bloomberg) -- The mustard seed harvest in India may be higher than forecast last month, helped by favorable weather and good quality seeds, according to an industry executive.

Production may exceed 6 million metric tons, compared with a forecast of 5.5 million tons, Devi Prasad Khandelia, managing director of Khandelia Oil & General Mills, said from Rajasthan, the nation’s biggest producer of the oilseed.

“The crop has been good so far on the sown area and the weather has been conducive,” Khandelia, who’s been surveying mustard fields in the northwest state, said in an interview. “The good news is there’s no damage to the crop this year.”

A bigger-than-forecast crop of the winter-sown oilseed may increase edible oil supplies, paring the need to buy cooking oil from abroad. Malaysia exported 137,550 tons of palm oil to India in January, up 53 percent from the previous month, according to Societe Generale de Surveillance. Palm oil makes up more than 80 percent of the country’s total edible oil imports.

The Solvent Extractors’ Association Ltd., which represents 800 Indian oilseed processors, is scheduled to release its final estimate for the mustard crop on Feb. 7. Khandelia is chairman of the mustard committee of the Solvent Extractors’ group.

Mustard seed production may total 5.7-5.8 million tons in the March-April harvest, down from 6.2 million tons a year ago, Govindlal G. Patel, who’s been trading edible oil for over four decades, said last month. He is chairman of the crop committee of the Central Organization for Oil Industry & Trade, India’s biggest group of oilseeds processors.

The crop, planted in October and November, makes up more than 70 percent of India’s winter oilseeds. Its yellow-colored oil is the third-most used cooking fat in India after palm and soybean oils.