‘India can earn around ₹1,000 crore annually’

BV Mehta, Executive Director of the Solvent Extractors Association of India, said: “It is possible for India to export around half a million tonnes of rapeseed meal to China and earn around ₹1,000 crore annually.”

Earlier, before the ban in 2012 over issues of contamination, India had exported around 3-4 lakh tonnes of rapeseed meal to China, Mehta said.

Rapeseed meal is mainly used as feed for poultry and livestock.

However, he cautioned that the procedures involved in registering with the Chinese authorities might take two to three months, pointing out that “Chinese processes are kind of lengthy.”.

China had imported oil meal worth $1.61 million before its tests showed that some cargoes were contaminated with malachite green, a dye widely used in India to brand grain sacks.