India's vegetable oil imports for the first six months of the oil year during November 2018 to April 2019, stood at 7,541,689 tonnes up about 3 per cent from 7,318,295 tonnes reported in the same period last year. However, the vegetable oil imports for the month of April 2019 reported a decline of about 11 per cent to 1,232,283 tonnes as against 1,386,466 tonnes reported in the corresponding month last year.

The data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) revealed that during November 2018 - April 2019, the import of refined oil (RBD Palmolein) increased to 1,199,052 tonnes from 980,353 tonnes in same period of last year.

However, import of crude oil decreased and reported at 6,004,778 tonnes from 6,166,398 tonnes during the same period of last year. The share of RBD Palmolein in the overall edible oil imports was just 12 per cent in November and 10 per cent in December, whereas in April 2019 it increased to 20 per cent.

As per the data, during November 2018-April 2019, Palm Oil import has marginally increased to 4,580,359 tonnes from 4,574,098 tonnes during the same period of last year, while import of Soft Oils including soybean, sunflower, rapeseed oil has increased to 2,623,471 tonnes from 2,572,653 tonnes during the same period of last year.

"In last one year, in international market, prices of various edible oils have gone down in the range of 11 per cent to 20 per cent due to excess supply in the world market, but rupee has depreciated by nearly 6 per cent in last one year," stated B V Mehta, executive director, SEA in a statement.

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