Local seed crushing mills do not use domestically grown soybean to extract edible oil. The soybeans are mainly used by mills to cater to the feed industry, an official of Meghna Group said

Many of you, who know about the cultivation of soybean in Bangladesh, might think that the production of the oilseed contributes to meeting the country's demand for edible oil to some extent.

Actually, not a single drop of oil is produced from soybean seeds cultivated in the country.

Data from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) showed that 1.4 lakh tonnes of soybean seed were produced on an average every year in the country. But all the seeds were used to produce feed for poultry and fish as there is no crushing facility at local levels.

However, a few companies do crush soybean seeds but only after importing those from different countries.

Taslim Shahriar, senior assistant general manager of the Meghna Group of Industries, said local seed crushing mills do not use domestically grown soybean to extract edible oil. The soybeans are mainly used by mills to cater to the feed industry, he said.

Millers do not buy the local seeds as the output volume is not worthwhile to crush, said Biswajit Saha, director for corporate and regulatory affairs at City Group, which also extracts soybean oil from seeds alongside refining the edible oil.

According to the DAE, 1.35 lakh tonnes of soybean seed were produced in fiscal year 2020-21, which was 8 per cent less than the previous year's production.

However, the DAE estimates production of 1.39 lakh tonnes of the oilseed from 79,100 hectares of land this season. The cultivation period runs from mid-December to late April.

Last season, farmers cultivated 78,700 hectares of land in the country.

Some 85 per cent of the country's soybean is cultivated solely in Laxmipur. This season, 38,000 hectares of land were cultivated in the district, 5 per cent less than that in the previous season.

The second highest amount of land, 14,000 hectares, was cultivated in Noakhali, according to the local DAE office.

Experts said despite the huge market demand, bright prospects and low cost, soybean cultivation has not expanded due to a lack of government steps, publicity and seed storage facilities; an unstable market and a dearth of crushing facilities.

But if soybean production can be increased, it will be possible to save a huge amount of foreign currency alongside meet local demand for the edible oil as the oilseed is the sole raw material for producing soybean oil, they said.

The country imports around 24 lakh tonnes of edible oil per year spending about $4.32 billion as per the current rate in the international market, said Biswajit Saha.

Of the amount, around 10 lakh tonnes are soybean oil while the rest is palm oil.

Meanwhile, 14 per cent of the soybean oil is produced crushing soybean seeds which is imported from different countries, according to millers.

In recent months, the prices of edible oil, especially soybean oil, went beyond the capacity of the low and middle-income groups, who were reeling from the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the Russia-Ukraine war began, price of the cooking ingredient went up to Tk 180 per litre, breaking records of recent history, and the issue of soybean and other oil seed production came into focus of the policymakers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently said more soybean and sunflower should be cultivated.

But agriculture experts said although farmers initially become interested in soybean cultivation due to the low cost and easy cultivation method, in the long run, they start to lose interest due to multiple challenges.

A top official of the DAE told The Daily Star that there was no seed crushing facilities at the local levels. This is the major barrier to the expansion of soybean cultivation, the official said.

Md Muzibal Haque, supply chain specialist of Solidaridad Network Asia, said the unavailability of high yielding seed varieties was also a big problem.

Other problems include a lack of skills of farmers, absence of seed drying and preservation systems, an unstable market dominated by middlemen and absence of incentives for farmers, Haque said.