India's veg oil imports up 2% in July

Country imported 8,70,328 tonnes of vegetable oil during same period last year

India's vegetable oil imports rose by 2% to 8,89,493 tonnes in July as against the year-ago period, the industry body SEA said today.

It said the rupee fall is putting pressure on shipments.

The country had imported 8,70,328 tonnes of vegetable oil during the same period last year, it said in a statement.

"The rupee has suddenly fallen in last few days, putting some pressure on import of vegetable oils," Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) said.

Of the total imports in July, edible oils comprised 874,703 tonnes. The shipment of palm oil was at 5,77,753 tonnes, followed by soyabean oil at 2,34,650 tonnes and sunflower oil at 62,300 tonnes.

Whereas, the import of non-edible oils was at 14,790 tonnes last month.

As on August 1, India -- the world's biggest buyer of edible oil --  has a total edible oil stock of 1,990,000 tonnes both at ports and pipelines, as against 2,060,000 tonnes in the previous month, the SEA said.

Interestingly, import of RBD palmolein fell by 27% to 2,13,853 tonnes in July as against 2,96,230 tonnes in the same period last year, due to reduction in duty difference between crude and refined palmolein and inverted duty structure by palm oil exporting countries, it said.

 "This has encouraged larger export of RBD Palmolein to India," the SEA observed.

 The overall import of vegetable oils has increased by 10.58% to 8,034,553 tonnes in the first nine months of the 2012-13 marketing year (November-October).