India is seen importing oilseeds more aggressively than exporting it. As per the government data for past four years, oilseeds imports to India have jumped 226 per cent as against 14 per cent dip in exports.

Data from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), as compiled by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), showed that during 2019-20, India exported 1,068,215 tonnes of oilseeds worth ₹9,391 crore against 1,247,572 tonnes worth ₹9,060 crore in 2016-17.

On the other hand, India imported 520,871 tonnes of oilseeds for 2019-20 valued at ₹2,838 crore as against 159,330 tonnes worth ₹758 crore in 2016-17.

The SEA informed that under the current policy, export of oilseeds are freely allowed. Similarly, import is also freely allowed with import duty of 30 per cent + 4 per cent special additional duty (SAD).

“Import of oilseed, a raw material for domestic oil milling and solvent extraction industry, supports the processing and capacity utilisation. The export of oilseeds are decreasing year-by-year while imports of oilseeds are rising,” BV Mehta, Executive Director, SEA, said in a statement.

Major oilseeds imported to India include soyabean at 360,649 (157,049) tonnes, sesameseed at 147,169 (87,538) tonnes and cottonseed at 7,412 (7,868) tonnes. Whereas, groundnut was the largest exported oilseed at 664,442 (489,187) tonnes, followed by sesameseed at 282,210 (312,003) tonnes.

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