India’s vegetable oil imports for the first six months of the oil year, from November 2018 to April 2019, stood at 7,541,689 tonnes. This is an increase of about 3 per cent from the 7,318,295 tonnes reported during the same period last year.
However, 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 between November 2018 and April 2019, import of refined oil (RBD Palmolein) increased to 1,199,052 tonnes from 980,353 tonnes in same period last year. However, import of crude oil decreased and came in at 6,004,778 tonnes from 6,166,398 tonnes in the same period last year. The share of RBD Palmolein in overall edible oil imports was just 12 per cent in November and 10 per cent in December, whereas in April 2019 it rose to 20 per cent.
Per the data, from November 2018 to April 2019, palm oil import has marginally risen to 4,580,359 tonnes from 4,574,098 tonnes during the same period last year, while import of soft oils, including soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oil has increased to 2,623,471 tonnes from 2,572,653 tonnes in the same period last year.
Over the last year, in the international market, prices of various edible oils have gone down in the range of 11-20 per cent due to excess supply in the world market whereas the rupee has depreciated by nearly 6 per cent in that period, said BV Mehta, SEA Executive Director, in a statement on Wednesday.