Soybean ended higher on Tuesday due to short covering after continuous fall in the last 4-5 trading sessions. There is market talk that the India can get soy meal export order from China and firm overseas soybean market provided support to the bulls. 

Weekly export inspections report released on April 18, 2011, reached 14.2 million bushels, it was lower than expected. Cumulative exports have reached 84.6% of the USDA forecast for the season as compared with 80.9% as the 5-year average for this time of the year. 

Government in its third advance estimate has estimated the record production of India’s oilseeds at 30.25 million tonnes in 2010-11 vs 24.93 million tonnes in 2009-10. Soybean output is estimated at 12.59 million tonnes against 10.05 million tonnes in 2009-10 and Groundnut at 7.09 million tonnes against 5.5 million tonnes in 2009-10. 

However there are no fresh soy meal export enquiries from South East Asian countries, which is likely to limit the gains. South East Asian countries have turned to Latin America to scout for their meal demand as harvesting and crushing of beans is progressing well in Brazil and Argentina. As a result of full-fledged harvesting they are offering soybean and its derivatives at much lower price compared to other countries. 

Hence lower crush margin and absence of fresh export enquiries is prompting local crushers to stay away from active buying.