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Import of refined oils more than trebled in July after the Centre lifted the restrictions on import of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil and palmolein but overall imports of edible oil declined by 1.5 per cent compared with June and 37 per cent compared with July last year, according to data from the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA).
India imported 13,895 tonnes of RBD palmolein in July against 3,200 tonnes in June, according to the data.
BV Mehta, Executive Director of SEA, said that the government lifted the restriction for import of refined palm oil and palmolein from June 30 up to December 31.
Stating that the major palm oil exporters such as Indonesia and Malaysia have higher duty on CPO (crude palm oil) compared to RBD palmolein, Mehta said this may lead to increase in the export of refined palm oil to India in coming months at the cost of CPO.
Of the 13,895 tonnes of RBD palmolein imported in July, India imported 12,895 tonnes from Indonesia, and 1,000 tonnes from Malaysia. The import of CPO decreased to 4.51 lakh tonnes (lt) in July as against 5.76 lt in June.
The total import of palm oil (which includes CPO and RBD palmolein) 4.65 lt in July against 5.87 lt in June.
Domestic industry to suffer
On June 29, the Government issued notifications on reduction in import duty on CPO and RBD palmolein, RBD palm oil and others. With this, the effective duty on CPO was reduced by 5.50 per cent up to September 30. While there was a reduction of 8.25 per cent in the effective duty on RBD palmolein, and 18.15 per cent of on RBD palm oil.
He said the notifications of June 29 and 30 will have impact on import of palm oil products in to India. It will be detrimental to the interest of domestic refiners and oilseed growers. This will also open floodgates for import of refined oils from Nepal and Bangladesh under SAFTA agreement at nil duty seriously hitting refiners in the eastern and northern India, he said.
The total import of palm oil (which includes CPO and RBD palmolein) increased to 56.15 lt during November 2020 to July when compared with 50.62 lt in the corresponding period of the previous oil year due to lower duty advantage compared to soft oils.
Soft oils
The import of soft oils decreased to 37.55 lt during November-July 2020-21 when compared to 45.35 lt in the corresponding period of the previous oil year due to lower import of sunflower oil. The import of sunflower oil stood at 15.24 lt (21.23 lt) and soyabean oil at 22.30 lt (23.95 lt) during the period.
However, there was an increase in the import of soyabean oil during July. The country imported 3.79 lt of soyabean oil in July as against 2.06 lt in June. The import of sunflower oil came down to 71,838 tonnes in July as against 1.75 lt in June.
Vegoils imports down
The import of vegetable oils (which includes edible oil and non-edible oil) decreased to 9.80 lt in July as against 9.96 lt in June. This included 9.17 lt (9.69 lt) of edible oil and 63,288 tonnes (26,583 tonnes) of non-edible oil. SEA’s Mehta attributed this decline in the import to the higher stocks in India during the period.
Stock
On August 1, the stock of edible oils at various ports was estimated at 5.85 lt (including 1.70 lt of CPO, 5,000 tonnes of RBD palmolein, 2.25 lt of degummed soyabean oil and 1.85 lt of crude sunflower oil), and pipeline stock at 11.10 lt. The stock decreased to 16.95 lt as on August 1 from 19.87 lt as on July 1.
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