New Delhi, India’s vegetable oil imports in August rose 7 per cent to 16.77 lakh tonnes compared to the same month last year, despite a sharp drop in refined palmolein shipments following changes in import duty, industry body SEA said on Monday.
Total vegetable oil imports stood at 15.63 lakh tonnes in August 2024.
The country imported 16.21 lakh tonnes of edible oil and 55,821 tonnes of non-edible oils in August, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said.
Among edible oils, crude oil imports rose to 16.13 lakh tonnes in August, while refined palmolein shipments declined to 8,000 tonnes from 92,130 tonnes a year ago.
The government has raised the import duty differential between crude palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil (RBD palmolein) from 8.25 per cent to 19.25 per cent, effective from May 31, making imports of refined oil unviable.
“The government’s decision to increase the duty differential is a bold and timely move,” SEA said in a statement.
“This has started discouraging imports of refined palmolein and demand has shifted back to crude oil, thereby reviving the domestic refining sector.”
Imports of crude palm oil rose to 9.79 lakh tonnes in August from 7 lakh tonnes a year ago.
However, crude sunflower oil imports declined to 2.57 lakh tonnes from 2.84 lakh tonnes, while crude soybean oil imports fell to 3.67 lakh tonnes from 4.54 lakh tonnes.
India imported 6,000 tonnes of canola in August, while crude palm kernel oil imports stood at 2,993 tonnes as against 4,641 tonnes in the same period last year.
India, the world’s largest edible oil consumer and importer, had edible oil stocks of 18.65 lakh tonnes as of September 1 due to a surge in imports in the last three months.
Indonesia and Malaysia are India’s major palm oil suppliers, while Argentina, Brazil and Russia supply soybean oil. Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of sunflower oil.
