Edible Oil Imports Jump By 26 Per Cent In July

The edible oil imports in the country, which had dropped by almost 10.5 per cent in June this year, have witnessed an increase of 26.19 per cent in July 2001 at 5.23 lakh tonne. In July last year, 4.14 lakh tonne of edible oil was imported to meet the domestic needs.

However, despite the fall in import of edible oils in June this year, the year-on-year import volume increased by 17 per cent in the first nine months (November 2000-July 2001) of the current oil year (November-October).

According to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India, current year's edible oil import have reached 3.49 lakh tonne as compared to almost 3 lakh tonne in the previous year's comparable period.

However, traders are saying that imports of edible oils will start declining from September onwards with the arrival of new oilseed crops.

"Crop outlook is good this year," said Devi Prasad Khandelia, chairman of Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade (COOIT), adding traders will go slow on import commitments after September-October.

Agriculture secretary JNL Srivastava said that widespread monsoon rains and higher area under oilseeds cultivation were likely to boost production of soyabean and groundnut.

"Rains have been excellent in most parts of the country and as per the weather reports and the area under cultivation, the crop production is likely to be very good," he said.

Traders estimated the production of nine major oilseeds at 12.5-13 million tonne in the kharif (winter-harvest) season compared with 11 million tonne in the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, an interesting pattern has emerged in the edible oil imports' front. The share of refined oil imports has dropped substantially while import of raw oil has increased correspondingly.

The ratio between refined and raw oil import in the current year stands at 38:62 as against previous year's 57:43. The ratio of palm oil and soft oil import has remained almost stagnant.

The import of RBD Palmolein has gone down from 16.75 lakh tonnes to 13.08 lakh tonne in the stipulated period.

But the fall has been compensated by the crude palm oil import which has registered an increase from 44.22 lakh tonne last year to 107.05 lakh tonne in the first nine months of the current oil year.

Overall, palm products cover 68 per cent of the domestic oil market where as soft oils, comprising of sunflower oil, soyabean oil, rapeseed oil etc, constitute 32 per cent of the total import.

The import of the non-edible oil during July 2001 has been to the tune of 22,821 tonnes compared to 9,827 tonnes in June 2001.

The cumulative imports for the current year stand at 1.97 lakh tonnes, up 32 per cent from previous year's 1.49 lakh tonnes.

The high edible oil prices witnessed since the second half of June had caused the drop in the import volumes, market sources said.

Tariffs fixed for ad valorem duty on palm oil imports

The government has fixed tariff values for levying ad valorem customs duties on import of crude and RBD palm oil as well as RBD palmolein.

An an official notification today said the tariff value would be $337 per metric tonne for crude palm oil, $351 for RBD palm oil and $372 for RBD palmolein.