Castor seed future March contract eased in the early trades due to lack of speculative buying.
Castor seed futures, in rupees per 100 kilograms, in the Rajkot market,
According to the Rajkot Commodity Exchange:
March Contract
Today’s open 3,998.00
At 1215 local time 3,991.00
Previous close 3,992.00
CastorOil.in brings you the weekly report of castor seed price at NCDEX.
Check out the table and the graphical data.
| Price Date | Rupees Per Quintal |
| 27 January | 4094.85 |
| 29 January | 4050 |
| 30 January | 4105.35 |
CastorOil.in brings you the weekly report of castor seed price at NCDEX.
A steady decrease in the price of castor seed is noticed this week.
Check out the table and the graphical data.
| Price Date | Rupees Per Quintal |
| 19 January | 4493.5 |
| 20 January | 4413.6 |
| 21 January | 4274.65 |
| 22 January | 4255.15 |
| 23 January | 4197.7 |
The table below provides the production rate of castor seed in china, during the years 2011-12 and 2012-13.
| Production (‘000 T) | Area Harvested(‘000 Ha) | Yield (T/H) | |||
| 175 | 180 | 210 | 210 | 0.86 | 0.86 |
It can be seen from the above table that the yields of castor seeds in China are almost on par of those in India (which is about 1 T/ha/year. An earlier post showed how the yield is far lower in Brazil.
China is the second largest producer of castor. It contributes about 7-10% of the world‘s castor seeds production. It uses about 60% of its castor oil for the production of Sebacic acid.
In 2011, China exported 0.13 million T of castor oil, which increased to 0.18 million T in 2012 and estimated to be 0.17 million T in 2013.
Castor oil and derivatives are widely used in soaps, creams (tretinoin), shampoos, perfumes, lip gels, lipsticks, hair oils, deodorants, lubricants, sunscreens, and other personal care products.
It has been used in skin care products for centuries, and continues to play an important part in soaps and cosmetics.
Cosmetics manufacturers use castor oil and its derivatives in formulating non-comedogenic cosmetics (cosmetics that don’t exacerbate or contribute to acne) and emollients.
The major companies using castor oil for cosmetics are given in the table.
| Company | Country | Products castor derivatives used in | Derivative Used |
| Lavera | USA | Deodorants, body lotion, sunscreen | Zinc ricinoleate and HCO |
| Avene | USA | Deodorant | Zinc ricinoleate |
| Jason | USA | Body lotion and deodorants | Zinc ricinoleate |
| Arkema | France | Hair care, beauty creams | Undecylenic acid |
| Aveya Beauty | USA | Hair care products | Castor oil basic grades |
| Worlee Cosmetics | Germany | Natural exfoliants | HCO |
The global demand for organic personal care products is expected to reach $13.2 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 9.6 per cent.
Castor today contributes only a small % to this sector, but the potential is much higher.
Castor Oil for Specialty Chemicals
Specialty chemicals market is a $700 billion + market worldwide, with high profit margins.
Given castor oil unique versatility, there could be a number of niche applications within specialty chemicals, other than the ones already exploited.
More “entrepreneurial” research needs to be undertaken in this direction.
Castor Oil for Biofuels
While there has been a lot of debate about the use of castor oil for biodiesel, we feel that it is not a viable route. Sure, technically castor oil might be suitable to make biodiesel, except perhaps for its high kinematic viscosity, which could even be taken care of during transesterification.
The more important dimensions are the economics and volumes which make castor oil quite unattractive as a feedstock for biodiesel:
In fact, we have been generous on the price aspect. If the current downtrend in crude prices continues, biodiesel might have to sell at less than $700 per T. We dont see how castor oil could support such a price.
On volumes, castor is produced in such small quantities, it really is going to make little difference overall to the biodiesel market.
And when especially the same castor oil oil could be sold at a much higher price to end users who would be willing to pay a much higher price for the oil or the derivative, we do not see how castor oil biodiesel could work out on any sizable scale.
There are three major issues with respect to castor yield and productivity challenges. They are
Toxicity Challenge
Apart from this, there are other challenges faced in castor industry. They are:
With India dominating castor production with over 80% of the total global production, it gives rise to a number of constraints and challenges. One of them being the price and supply volatility owing to the entire world depending on one country for supplies.
Thus, one of the ways to overcome the price and supply volatility challenge is to increase the geographical diversity of cultivation.
Emerging Geographies are
Americas
Africa
Asia & Middle East
Increasing the yield of castor from 1 T/hectare per year (the average right now in India) to something much higher is a highly desirable outcome, but not very easy.
The best way to overcome yield challenge in castor industry is to concentrate more on research and development (R&D) area.
Many techniques are emerging in R&D sector to increase the yield of castor. These include
While India currently average about 1 T/hectare per year for castor seeds, there is potential for much higher yield.
As part of the research to increase yields, efforts have been going on in India for high yielding varieties of castor.
The table below shows the various high yielding castor varieties produced by different states across India.
| State | Variety | Hybrid |
| Andhra Pradesh | Aruna, Bhagya, Sowbhagya, Kranti (PCS-4), Jwala, DCS-9 | |
| (Jyothi), Kiran (PCS-136), Haritha (PCS-124). | ||
| Uttar Pradesh | Kalpi-6, T-3, T-4 | |
| Gujarat | GAUC-1, VI-9, S-20, J-1andGCH 7 | CH-1, GCH-2, GCH-3, GCH6, SHB-145, GCH-7 and(SKP 84 x SKI 215 |
| Tamil Nadu | TMV-1, TMV-2, TMV-3, TMV-5, SA-1, SA-2, TMV-4,Jyothi, CO-1 | TMVCH-1and TMVCG* |
| Karnataka | Jwala (48-1), RC-8, Jyothi | |
| Maharashtra | AKC-1, Girija | GCH-6 |
| Rajasthan | GCH-6, RHC-1 | |
| Haryana | CH-1 | |
| Punjab | Pb. No.1 | |
| For all states | Gujarat Castor-2 | DCH-32 (Deepti)DCH-177 (Deepak)GCH-4, GCH-5, DCH 519 |
| For entire country | DCH 519 | M 574 x DCS 78 |