Edible oil refiners hope for protection from Modi govt

The edible oil refining industry expects protection from the new government, which it hopes would be led by BJP's Narendra Modi, industry experts said.
"We expect the Modi government (if NDA comes to power) to move quickly and give protection to our industry, since he is from Gujarat and knows the oilseed industry extremely well," a media release from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said here today, quoting Godrej International's director Dorab Mistry telling the same at a recent palm oil conference in Malaysia.
The domestic edible oil industry faces threats due to a high duty structure and the absence of incentives from the government, unlike Indonesia and Malaysia, which offer huge incentives to their local edible oil industry.

In the recent past, the edible oil industry invested Rs 10,000 crore in capacity expansion and employed around 5 lakh people. Gujarat saw big growth in cotton production under Modi's leadership. This growth came mainly from higher productivity of GM seeds, better irrigation and good power supply, Mistry noted.
However, the Centre has been totally indifferent to the plight of the edible oil refining industry, since export sops offered by Malaysia and Indonesia have made life extremely difficult for India's domestic edible oil refiners.
Describing the recent hike in import duty on RBD olein as "cosmetic", he said that even this belated step is inadequate to rescue hapless edible oil refiners.

Vegetable oil production is estimated at 74,40,000 tonnes in the year ending October 2014, as compared to 69,60,000 tonnes a year ago, he said.