India’s refined palm oil imports surged 2.7x in past 11 months

India has seen its refined palm oil imports increase by more than two and a half times to 17.12 lakh tonnes in the past 11 months due to lower prices in Indonesia, the industry body said on Thursday. SEA. The country had imported 6.28 lakh tons of refined palm oil (RBD palmolein) in the previous year. The oil year runs from November to October, he said.

India, the world’s largest buyer of vegetable oils, imported 130.1 lakh tonnes of vegetable oils during the November-September period of the current 2021-22 oil year, 4% more than it a year ago.

Palm oil shipments account for 50% of total vegetable oil imports.

According to the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), Indonesia reduced tariffs on refined palm oil while keeping the tariff on crude palm oil (CPO) higher until recently. three months. This has encouraged Indonesian exporters to push shipments of refined palm oil at discounted rates, he said.

This led to an increase in Indian imports of palmolein RBD and the quantities increased sharply in August and September, he added.

As a result, the country’s CPO imports dropped to 52.37 lakh tonnes in the November-September period of the 2021-22 oil year, from 68.64 lakh tonnes a year ago, it said. he adds.

But overall palm oil imports fell to 70.28 lakh tonnes from November to September, from 76.27 lakh tonnes a year ago.

While imports of sweet oils like soybean and sunflower rose to 56.35 lakh tons from 44.58 lakh tons in the comparable period, SEA data showed.

During the period November-September this year, Malaysia supplied 28.13 lakh tons of CPO and 11.61 lakh tons of palmolein RBD, while Indonesia supplied 17.15 lakh tons of CPO and 11. 61 lakh tons of RBD palmolein.

The industry body said the sharp decline in global edible oil prices over the past five months has also led to lower domestic prices. This has brought great relief to consumers during the current festival period.

However, the fall in prices has also caused domestic oilseed prices to fall very close to the minimum support price level, which is of concern to government, industry and farmers, he added.

“In the absence of futures contracts and hedging facilities, importers of palm oil and soybean oil have suffered severe financial losses over the past 3-4 months. Hedging for soybeans to stimulate export of soybean meal,” the SEA said.

Also in support of the domestic market, the SEA has asked the government to consider increasing import duties on palm oil and RBD palm by at least 10% to help farmers receive a price. remunerative for their products during the harvest period.

India mainly imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a small amount of sweet crude oil, including soybean oil from Argentina. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia.