Duty cut pushes CPO import up by 18% in Dec

Our Bureau

A 10 per cent duty reduction on the import of crude palm oil (CPO) on November 27 has helped boost CPO import during December, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA).

India imported 7,48,006 tonnes of CPO during December 2020 as against 6,31,824 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2019, recording a growth of 18.38 per cent.

BV Mehta, Executive Director of SEA, said that the import duty reduction on CPO from 37.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent on November 27, 2020 has encouraged larger import of the oil during the period.

The total import of CPO during the first two months of the oil year November-October 2020-21 increased to 1.33 million tonnes (mt) (1.17 mt), recording a growth of 14.07 per cent during the period. Malaysia was the major supplier of CPO at 7,36,180 tonnes (2,42,822 tonnes) and 9,29,423 tonnes from Indonesia.

During November-December 2020, the import of palm oil (including CPO, RBD palmolein, and crude palm kernel oil) decreased to 1.38 mt (58 per cent) (1.41 mt), and the import of soft oils increased to 1.02 mt (42 per cent) (7,93,951 tonnes).

Although import duty on CPO was reduced, the import duty on other soft oils remained unchanged at 35 per cent.

India mainly imported crude degummed soybean oil (5,51,558 tonnes) from Argentina; and crude sunflower oil (3,84,408 tonnes) from Ukraine and Russia (64,629 tonnes).

Refined vs crude oils

With RBD palmolein being placed under the restricted list, India is now importing crude edible oils only. In view of this, the import of crude oil increased to 2.39 mt (99.5per cent) during November-December, 2020 (1.99 mt).

India’s import of vegetable oils (which includes both edible and non-edible oils) stood 1.35 mt in December 2020 (1.12 mt), recording a growth of 20 per cent. This import included 1.32 mt (1.10 mt) of edible oils and 28,424 tonnes (20,901 tonnes) of non-edible oils.