Imports of vegetable oil in the first five months of oil year 2008-09 beginning with November 2008, show an unusual high increase by 59% to 3.59 million tonnes from 2.26 million tonnes for the same period of last year, a top industry official said. "India had imported a record quantity of 6.3 million tonnes vegetable oils during oil year 2007-08. Looking at the current trend, I expect about 0.6-0.7 million tonnes shipment in April and we may see a new record import of around 7.5 million tonnes during the current oil year ending with October 2009," Solvent Extractors' Association of India's President, Ashok Sethia, said in a statement here. "It is surprising that import is rising month-to-month inspite of a substantial stock at Indian ports and in pipelines, even ignoring the price rise in the last three months in the international market," Sethia said. According to him, it seemed that domestic oil availability has reduced due to lesser kharif oilseed crops and drop in cottonseed oil production. Besides, rice milling has also been affected due to the ban on export of rice, which has reduced the availability of rice bran and thereby, rice bran oil.
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