India's vegetable oil imports rose by 21 per cent to 81.10 lakh tonnes (lt) in the first six months of the current oil year, driven by increased shipments of refined palm oil which is a cause of concern, industry body SEA said on Friday. Vegetable oil imports stood at 67.07 lt in the same period of the 2021-22 oil year.

India is the world's leading vegetable oil buyer. Oil year runs from November to October.

In fact, in April vegetable oil imports remained lower by 10 per cent at 10.50 lt when compared to the previous month's 11.72 lt.

According to the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), "Increase in import of RBD palmolein in the first six months of the current oil year reported at 11.01 lt is nearly 22 per cent of the total palm oil import, depriving domestic industry for capacity utilisation."

‘Heavily suffering’

The palm oil refining industry in the country is heavily suffering from very low capacity utilisation due to excessive import of RBD palmolein, thus getting transformed into mere packers, it said in a statement.

To address this problem, SEA said the duty difference between crude palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil needs to be increased from the current 7.5 per cent to at least 15 per cent, by imposing an additional 7.5 per cent agriculture cess on RBD Palmolein.

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Due to an increase in the shipment of RBD palmolein, the share of palm oil has risen to 61 per cent in the total vegetable oil imports from 49 per cent, while soft oils imports reduced in the first six months of the current year.

Palm oil imports, both crude and refined ones, rose to 49.09 lt during the November-April period of the 2022-23 oil year from 32.25 lt in the year-ago period because of the price parity.

Although total import of soft oils -- sunflower and soybean oils -- remained lower at 30.92 lt in the first half of the current oil year, but shipments of these two vegetable oils have seen a sharp jump, the SEA said.

As of May 1, edible oil stocks were estimated to be 33.74 lt at various ports, slightly lower than 34.47 lt in the previous month.

India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a small quantity of crude soft oil, including soyabean oil from Argentina. Sunflower is imported from Russia and Ukraine.

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