Edible oil: India’s import hits a 4-year low
New Delhi: For the first time in four years, India’s edible oil imports significantly decreased in February, and this shrink was led by soya and sunflower oils, dragging inventories to their lowest levels, an industry body said.
A shrink in imports for the second consecutive month depleted the stocks of the world’s biggest buyer of vegetable oils. This could push India to increase purchases of Malaysian palm oil prices and US soya oil futures, the media reported on Tuesday.
The Solvent Extractor’s Association of India (SEA) said India imported more than 750,000 tonnes last year. Soya oil and sunflower oil imports have decreased by 36 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
Lower shipments of soya and sunflower oil brought down the country’s total vegetable oil imports last month by 12 percent to 899,565 tonnes, the lowest since February 2021, the SEA said.
Edible oil stocks in India have fallen by 14 pecernt from a month ago to 1.87 million tonnes on March 1.
India majorly imports sunflower oil from Russia, Argentina, Brazil, and vegetable oils from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. As per the industry the export pattern will be better in March.
The share of palm oil has decreased from 43 percent in the first four months of the current marketing year and is expected to fall by 66 percent until October 2025.
