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Vegetable oil imports dropped 11 per cent in November as the country had huge stocks in various ports and the pipeline in November.
In fact, the situation is likely to lead to some dormancy in imports this month too, according to the Solvent Extractors association.
A data put out by the association projected November imports of vegetable oils at a little over seven lakh tonnes in the first month of the oil year against 8.55 lakh tonnes during the same period a year ago. The edible oil year runs from November to October.
“With huge stocks in ports and the pipeline, imports did not buy much last month. Also, kharif soyabean production is higher besides a volatile currency market also kept importers off,” said B.V. Mehta, Executive Director of the association.
Usually, vegetable oil imports are at a low during November-February as crushing of kharif oilseeds takes place.
According to the solvent extractors body statistics, 9.20 lakh tonnes of vegetable oils were held up in the ports while another 6.5 lakh tonnes were in transit as on November 1.
The port stock position was 6.55 lakh tonnes on December 1 with eight lakh tonnes of vegetable oils in transit. This year’s kharif oilseed output has been pegged higher at 208.9 lakh tonnes against 208.5 lakh tonnes a year ago. Soyabean production has, however, been projected marginally lower this year at 125.7 lakh tonnes against 126.6 lakh tonnes last year. The industry, however, expects a record harvest of soyabean this year.
Crude oils made up 89 per cent of the imports. Nearly six lakh tonnes of the shipments into the country were crude oils with crude palm oil account for 5.34 lakh tonnes.
Among refined oils, RBD (refined, bleached and deodorised) made up 76,519 tonnes.
When its comes to the issue of palm groups oils versus soft oils, the palm group made up 91 per cent of the total imports. Sunflower topped the shipments of soft oils at 47,500 tonnes.
Imports were lower in November despite a drop in prices, barring sunflower oil.
While crude sunflower oil was up at $1,220 a tonne in November against $1,186 last year, prices of other oils were lower by at least $200 a tonne. At the same time, rupee during the period depreciated by over 10 per cent. With regard to stocks at ports, crude palm oil made up 4.6 lakh tonnes, RBD palmolein 75,000 tonnes, degummed soyabean oil 40,000 tonnes, crude sunflower oil 70,000 tonnes and canola/rape oil 10,000 tonnes.
>subramani.mancombu@thehindu.co.in
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