India's veg oil imports dip by 13% in Sep

Vegetable oil imports by India, the world's second-largest buyer, fell by 13 per cent to 8,63,917 tonnes in September this year due to weak rupee and early crushing of oilseeds following arrival of new crop, industry body SEA said today.

The country had imported 9,93,912 tonnes of vegetable oil in the same month last year, it said in a statement.

"Two factors affected import demand last month. One was weakening rupee situation and the other was timely harvesting of domestic oilseeds crop encouraged crushing operations quite early," Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) Executive Director B V Mehta told PTI.

Normally, crushing operations begin from the first week of November. This time, crushing units have already started well in advance because of timely harvesting of soyabean and grountnut crops in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, he said.

Out of total 8,63,917 tonnes of vegetable oils imports in September, edible oil comprised of 8,33,855 tonnes and non-edible oils stood at 30,062 tonnes.

Among edible oils, shipment of palm oil was 6,44,386 tonnes, soyabean oil at 1,40,971 tonnes and sunflower oil at 48,498 tonnes during last month.

According to SEA, about 5,15,000 tonnes of edible oil stocks are estimated to have been lying at various ports and about 9,50,000 tonnes are in pipelines.

During the November-September period of 2012-13 oil year, the country's overall import of vegetable oils rose by 5.46 per cent to 9,656,300 tonnes, as compared with 9,156,457 tonnes in the year-ago period, it added.

India depends heavily on imports to meet half its edible oil requirements.

Domestic vegetable oils output is likely to be higher this year owing to an expected record 23.96 million tonnes of production in the kharif season of 2013-14 crop year (July-June).