India’s edible oil imports declined by 20.38 per cent in the first two months of the oil year 2023-24 (November to October).

According to the data provided by Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), India imported 24.55 lakh tonnes (lt) of edible oil during the first two months of the oil year 2023-24 against 30.84 lt in the corresponding period of the previous oil year 2022-23.

BV Mehta, Executive Director of SEA, said there was an increase in the import of sunflower oil and decrease in the import of crude palm oil (CPO) during the period.

Import of sunflower oil increased to 3.89 lt in November-December of 2023-24 against 3.51 lt in the corresponding period of the previous oil year. India imported 1.13 lt of of crude sunflower oil from Russia, 1.09 lt from Romania, 85,012 tonnes from Argentina, and 42,990 tonnes from Ukraine during the period.

However, there was a decline in the import of soyabean oil from 4.81 lt in November-December of 2022-23 to 3.02 lt in the corresponding period of 2023-24. India imported 1.48 lt of crude soyabean de-gummed oil from Argentina, and 1.01 lt from Brazil during the period.

CPO shipments decline

The import of CPO declined to 13.12 lt in the first two months of 2023-24 against 17.75 lt in November-December of 2022-23. RBD palmolein’s import stood at 4.22 lt (4.58 lt) during the period.

Indonesia exported 7.16 lt of CPO and 3.85 lt of RBD palmolein to India, and Malaysia 4.46 lt of CPO and 37,342 tonnes of RBD palmolein during the period.

Palm vs soft oils

Import of palm oil (including CPO and RBD palmolein) products declined to 17.63 lt during November-December 2023-24 from 22.50 lt in the corresponding period the previous oil year, and that of soft oils decreased to 6.92 lt from 8.33 lt.

Meanwhile, the share of refined oils (RBD palmolein) in the total import went up from 15 per cent in November-December 2022-23 to 17 per cent in 2023-24, and the share of crude edible oils decreased from 85 per cent to 83 per cent during the current oil year.

Stock down a tad

Total stock of edible oils in India was reported at 28.97 lt as on January 1 when compared to 29.60 lt as on December 1. This included a provisional stock of 9.48 lt at various ports and pipeline stock of 19.49 lt as on January 1.

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