India's cooking oil imports up 6.23% in Nov

India's cooking oil imports rose by 6.23 per cent to 12.48 lakh tonnes in November this year on higher shipment of crude sunflower and soyabean oil, industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said today.
Cooking (vegetable) oil imports had stood at 11.75 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. The share of palm oil is more than 60 per cent in total imports.
Last month, the government raised import duty on edible oils to 15 per cent across the board to protect domestic growers.
Among edible oils, crude oil imports rose to 5,59,584 tonnes in November 2017 as against 5,57,364 tonnes in the same period last year, the SEA data showed.

Soyabean oil imports increased substantially to 2,73,928 tonnes from 1,64,286 tonnes, while that of sunflower oil shipments rose to 1,93,810 tonnes from 1,58,071 tonnes in the said period.
Similarly, import of RBD palmolein remained lower at 1,47,362 tonnes in November this year compared to 2,40,948 tonnes in the year-ago.

Import of canola oil increased to 40,609 tonnes from 32,195 tonnes in the said period, the data showed.
In case of non-edible oils, imports were at 23,495 tonnes in November 2017 as against 19,601 tonnes in the same month last year.
On recent hike in edible oil import duty, the SEA said that "the announcement has changed the sentiment and the market has moved upward and now prices of soyabean and groundnut touched MSP which were ruling much below prior to import duty hike."

Inadvertently, cottonseed oil duties were not raised and remained unchanged at 12.5 per cent on crude and 20 per cent on refined ones, which has created an anomaly and harming the interest of cottonseed farmers, it said, urging the government address the problem at the earliest.
As on December 1, the SEA said that edible oil stock at various ports was 8,47,000 tonnes and about 14,20,000 tonnes were in the pipeline
India's monthly requirement is 18 lakh tonnes and the current stock can meet demand for 38 days.
India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia and a small quantity of crude soft oil, including soyabean oil from Latin America. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia.