Comments
The edible oil industry plans to promote the consumption of rice bran oil in a big way to cut down imports. One of the ways to increase its consumption will be by highlighting its various benefits, mainly on health, according to the Solvent Extractors Association of India.
Vegetable oils are among the top five commodities on which foreign exchange outgo is the highest. During the last oil year that ended in October, 83.71 lakh tonnes (lt) of vegetable oils were imported. This season, 30.02 lt have been imported between November and February, against 26.13 lt during the same period a year ago. In February alone, imports increased 59 per cent.
The value of edible oil imports was estimated at Rs 30,000 crore during 2010-11.
Largest producer
Mr B.V. Mehta, Executive Director of the Association, told Business Line that as India is the second largest producer of rice, after China, the country has the potential to produce over 13 lakh tonnes of rice bran oil. Currently, it produces 8.5-9 lt.
“Of this, 3 lakh tonnes are used as edible oil while the rest is used by the vanaspati industry or blended with sunflower and corn oils and sold as branded products,” he said.
India tops in producing rice bran oil in Asia, followed by Japan and Thailand. “We get a lot of export enquiries from West Asia and Australia. But since the Government has banned exports of edible oil, we are unable to tap the huge export potential,” Mr Mehta said.
The Centre, in order to rein in inflation and surging edible oil prices, had banned the export of edible oils in bulk a couple of years ago. It, however, allows export of edible oil in consumer packages of up to 5 kg.
Health benefits
“At least 15 companies make and market rice bran oil in a big way and farmers too are getting good prices for the rice bran. Since there are hassles on the export front, we plan to focus on increasing domestic consumption of this healthy oil,” he said.
Towards this end, the SEA is holding a national seminar on rice bran oil in Mumbai on April 22. The seminar, which will focus on the oil's nutritional benefits, will be attended by cardiologists, dieticians and nutritionists.
Besides the health angle, the price of rice bran oil is cheaper than that of olive oil and is comparatively less than that of groundnut oil, Mr Mehta said.
Currently, groundnut oil is ruling at Rs 1,25,000 a tonne, while rice bran oil is quoting at Rs 69,500 a tonne.
>Gayathri.gururajan@thehindu.co.in
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.