AHMEDABAD: India’s vegetable oil imports have declined by 19 per cent to 1.02 million tonnes (mt) for the month of January 2017 against 1.24 mt in the corresponding month last year.
The overall import of vegetable oils during the first three months of current oil year (November 2016 to January 2017) stood at 3,410,008 tonnes compared to 4,016,391 tonnes — down by 15 per cent on year-on-year basis, revealed data compiled by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA).
“Import has reduced due to good kharif crop and thus better domestic availability of edible oils and utilisation of stock. Also, currency crunch due to demonetisation has slowed down the purchases by end consumers affecting the demand and imports,” SEA stated in its statement on Wednesday. So far in the 2016-17 oil year, import of refined oil (RBD Palmolein) increased to 683,125 tonnes (613,546 tonnes) showing a 11 per cent rise, while import of crude oil decreased by 21 per cent to 2,655,119 tonnes (3,383,879 tonnes).
Since April 2016, the landed price of RBD Palmolein and CPO have remained more or less the same encouraging larger import of RBD Palmolein at the cost of CPO. The spread between palm oil and soft oil also reduced encouraging larger import of soft oils.
Also, importers continue to make larger purchases of sunflower oil, taking advantage of the still large price discount versus soya oil, SEA said.
Source: Thehindubusinessline.com
