India’s Palm Oil import Rises 21.58 per cent in May

New Delhi: Palm oil import rose 21.58 per cent to 7,99,346 tonnes in May, industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said. According to SEA, this growth is attributed to the low output of domestic vegetable oil caused due to the reluctance of the farmers to sell oilseeds below the minimum support price for processing.

“Import of edible oil sharply increased in last two months as farmers are reluctant to sell oilseeds below MSP, which resulted into lower production of domestic vegetable oil,” SEA said in a statement.

India had imported 6,57,454 tonnes palm oil in May 2016.

Palm oils comprise 64 per cent of the country’s total vegetable oil import.

Among palm oil products, import of crude palm oil (CPO) went up by 26 per cent to 4.92 lakh tonnes in May this year from 3.91 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.

The shipment of RBD palmolein rose by 12.73 per cent to 2.94 lakh tonnes, as against 2.61 lakh tonnes, while the import of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) witnessed a fourfold increase to 12,497 tonnes, from 4,499 tonnes in the said period, the SEA said in a statement.

Among soft oil, import of sunflower oil rose to 1.54 lakh tonnes in May 2017, from 1.50 lakh tonnes in the year earlier. The shipment of soyabean oil increased 3.40 lakh tonnes from the earlier 1.78 lakh tonnes while that of rapeseed-mustard oil also rose to 29,143 tonnes, from 18,718 tonnes.

India, the world’s leading vegetable oil buyer, imports palm oil, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia. The country imports a small quantity of crude soft oils, including soyabean oil from Latin America. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia.