India's vegetable oil imports flat at 16.3 million tonnes in 2024-25: SEA

India's vegetable oil imports were unchanged at 16.3 million tonnes in the 2024-25 marketing year that ended in October, matching the previous year's level, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said on Thursday.

The imports included 1.33 million tonnes of edible oils and 4,625 tonnes of non-edible oils in October, down 9 per cent from 1.46 million tonnes a year earlier, the industry body said.

Soybean oil imports hit a record 5.47 million tonnes in 2024-25, surpassing the previous high of 4.23 million tonnes set in 2015-16, SEA said.

Palm oil imports fell sharply to 7.58 million tonnes from 9.02 million tonnes a year earlier, while soft oil imports jumped to 8.43 million tonnes from 6.95 million tonnes, driven by higher soybean oil purchases.

Palm oil's share of total imports dropped to 47 per cent from 56 per cent, while soft oils' share rose to 53 per cent from 44 per cent, the data showed.

The government in May widened the import duty gap between crude and refined oils to 19.25 per cent from 8.25 per cent, halting refined palm oil imports. However, India imported 750,000 tonnes of refined soybean and sunflower oils from Nepal under a zero-duty trade agreement.

Indonesia supplied 2.75 million tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) and 832,152 tonnes of refined palm oil, while Malaysia exported 2.62 million tonnes of CPO to India during the year.

For soybean oil, Argentina was the top supplier at 2.89 million tonnes, followed by Brazil at 1.14 million tonnes. Russia led sunflower oil exports to India with 1.47 million tonnes.

Total vegetable oil stocks stood at 1.73 million tonnes as of November 1, down from 1.99 million tonnes a month earlier, SEA said.

The oil marketing year runs from November through October.