Edible oils imports rise 24% in May

Edible oils imports increased by 24 per cent to 4,94,184 tonnes in May compared with 3,99,151 tonnes during the same month last year. Imports of non-edible oils in May also surged by 144 per cent to 1,15,196 tonnes compared to 47,277 tonnes in the year-ago period.

During the oil year (November 2006 to May 2007), however, overall imports of edible oils remained almost unchanged at 22,01,500 tonnes compared with 22,00,592 tonnes last year.

But, imports of non-edible oils rose by 18 per cent to 4,06,994 tonnes during the first seven months from 3,43,376 tonnes. According to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India, imports of edible oils maintained at same level and did not increase in spite of lower oilseeds crop during the current year.

This is mainly due to higher international and domestic prices, which checked consumption, thereby bringing down imports. The total edible oils imports for the oil year 2006-07 are likely to be lesser than the earlier expectation. It may be in the range of 47 to 48 lakh tonnes. In 2005-06, the imports stood at 44.2 lakh tonnes.

Imports of palm oil products (CPO, RBD palmolein, crude palmolein and crude palm kernel oil) in the first seven months are reported to be 16,43,621 tonnes compared with 12,74,296 tonnes during the same period last year. Soft oil imports declined by around 40 per cent to 5,57,879 tonnes against 9,26,296 tonnes last year.