Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil has decreased prices by ₹15 to ₹220 a litre during last week and mulls further ₹20 reduction to bring down cost to ₹200 a litre.

Last year, the prices of sunflower had witnessed a steep increase due to the Covid-related supply disruptions and further intensified on Russia-Ukraine war. Incidentally, Ukraine was the major exporter of sunflower oil to India. In the last few weeks, the sunflower oil supplies started coming in partially from countries such as Argentina and Russia, resulting in some price drop, said a press statement issued by the company.

The Centre’s intervention with series of duty cuts on crude sunflower oil had helped in reducing the prices. The market also reacted by dropping the prices to the upcoming duty cut of 5.5 per cent making it a zero duty under tariff quota for quantity 20 lakh tonnes effective from June 18, 2022.

 “Most of the Sunflower oil – about 70 per cent of India’s consumption is from the southern states and Odisha. Our prices are determined by the global trends, foreign currency fluctuation, import duties, transport, and manufacturing costs. Earlier this year, due to the global factors, the MRP of Sunflower oil was increased to ₹235 per litre. The supplies and global prices are easing but not yet near the pre-Covid levels. We have reduced the MRP by ₹15 and will further drop it by ₹20 to ₹200. The stocks with the new MRP will be available to the end-users across the geographies,” P Chandra Shekhara Reddy, Sr. Vice President Sales & Marketing, Freedom Healthy Cooking Oils said in a statement.

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