Edible oil imports drop by 21 per cent in September

Total imports decline by 18% in the first 11 months of the oil year.

Edible oil import declined by 21 per cent at 363,569 tonne in September 2006 as compared with 457,934 tonne imported in the same month last year, according to a report by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India.

The import of non-edible oil, however, increased by 15 per cent in September 2006 at 68,094 tonne compared with 50,398 tonne imported in the same month last year.

The total import of edible oil declined by 18 per cent at 37,80,112 tonne in the first 11 months of the oil year ending September 2006 compared with 46,30,483 tonne in the same period last year.

Import of refined oil has further reduced to 1.28 lakh tonne from 4.36 lakh tonne in the first 11 months of the current oil year. Crude palmolein import declined to 51,807 tonne from 1.86 lakh tonne last year. During 2002-03, crude palmolein imports had touched a peak of 12.6 lakh tonne.

During the 11 month period of the current oil year, non-edible oil imports jumped by 63 per cent to 605,611 tonne as compared with 370,774 tonne in the same period last year.

Edible oil imports during the last oil year November-October witnessed an increase of 13 per cent to 50,41,607 tonne as compared with 43,96,587 tonne in the oil year 2003-04.

Among edible oils, the import of crude palm oil surged dramatically to 266,433 tonne in September 2006 from 163,120 tonne in the comparable month last year.

Similarly, crude palm kernel oil jumped to 6,220 tonne in September 2006 as compared with 1,499 tonne in September 2005. Import of RBD palmolein and crud olein, however, slumped to 12,897 tonne and 2000 tonne in September 2006 from 22,592 tonne and 10,128 tonne respectively in the same month last year.

In case of non-edible oils category, imports of PFAD, CPS and CPKO in September surged to 17,017 tonne (15,565 tonne), 30,798 tonne (20,275 tonne) and 16,791 tonne (2,250 tonne) respectively.