COMMODITY
India reports decline in vegetable oil imports by 2.72% in 2017-18
Dec-14-2018

India, the world's leading vegetable oil importer, has reported 2.72% decline in imports during the 2017-18 oil year ended October 31, at 15MT. The country imported 15.4 MT last year same period. By about 70% of the domestic requirement is met through imports, and palm oil accounts for 60% of the shipments.

The shipments rose in first quarter of 2017-18 period. However, it dipped during second and third quarters due to revision of import duty in June, fast rupee depreciation and also due to credit crunch. Imports increased in fourth quarter as pipelines were dried up due to lesser import in June and July, coupled with improved parity in the import of palm oil due to reduction in spread between palm oil and soft oils.

As per the reports of industry body Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) , among the vegetable oils edible oil shipments declined to 14.51 MT in 2017-18 from 15.07 MT in the previous year, while non-edible oils' import rose to 5,09,748 tonnes from 3,62,822 tonnes earlier. Palm oil imports during the 2017-18 oil year declined to 8.7 MT from 9.29 MT in the previous year, while soft oils' shipments rose to 5.81 MT from 5.78 MT.

In the last year the overseas prices of various edible oils have gone down in the range of 11 to 25% due to excess supply in the world market and dip in demand by India. The rupee depreciating nearly 13% also made the imports expensive. India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a small quantity of crude soft oil, including soya bean oil, from Latin America, while sunflower oil is shipped from Ukraine and Russia.

  RELATED NEWS >>