India's 2010 rapeseed output would drop by 11.3 percent from a year earlier due to poor prospects in the biggest producing state, the head of the country's top rapeseed oil producer said on Friday. Output of the main winter-planted oilseed, to be harvested from March, would drop to 5.5 million tonnes from 6.2 million tonnes a year ago.

As production in the north western Rajasthan state would shrink 18.5 percent to 2.2 million tonnes, Sanjay Agarwal, managing director of K.S. Oils told Reuters. "Lower acreage in Rajasthan and cold, foggy weather conditions in northern India is likely to affect rapeseed production," Agarwal said. He also said vegetable oil demand in India, the world's top importer, would grow 6 percent a year in the foreseeable future. Last year's weakest monsoon rains in more than three decades led to low soil moisture in Rajasthan, which accounts for half of India's rapeseed production.

Copyright Reuters, 2010