Festive demand fuels July edible oil imports

Edible oil imports rose by 18 per cent to 548,908 tonnes in July compared with 463,735 tonnes in the same month last year on growing demand ahead of the festive season. Non-edible oil imports, however, were a tad higher at 32,688 tonnes compared with 32,371 tonnes during the period under review, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA).

Looking at the trend in the last quarter and with less domestic supply during the lean period of crushing, imports during the fourth quarter (August-October) are likely to be the same or slightly higher. The overall vegetable oil imports for the oil year 2006-07 is projected at 55 to 56 lakh tonnes consisting of 48 lakh tonnes of edible oils and 7.5 lakh tonnes of non-edible oils, according to the SEA release.

The country's RBD palmolein imports surged to 18,895 tonnes (1,748 tonnes), while refined soybean oil imports slumped to 7,120 tonnes from 11,257 tonnes. There were no imports of refined sunflower oil in July this year compared with 1,050 tonnes in the year-ago month.

Crude palm oil imports witnessed 60 per cent growth at 255,615 tonnes as against 159,733 tonnes last year. Crude sunflower oil imports also grew to 23,568 tonnes as against no imports last year. In contrast, imports of crude olein and degummed soybean oil declined to 4,572 tonnes (5,604 tonnes) and 236,763 tonnes (290,250 tonnes) respectively.

Vegetable oil imports (edible and non-edible), which showed negative growth during the second quarter (February-April) of the oil year (November 2006-October 2007), thanks to better domestic availability, bounced back in the third quarter (May- July) at 17,81,528 tonnes against 14,11,774 tonnes in the same quarter last year. The overall imports from November 2006 to July 2007 registered an 8 per cent rise at 37,80,642 tonnes over the last year's figures.

In the first quarter (November 2006-January 2007), India imported 932,214 (776,894) tonnes of edible oils and 158,792 (147,320) tonnes of non-edible oils. During the first nine months of the current oil year, the total edible oil imports grew 8 per cent to 37,80,642 tonnes in comparison with 35,09,314 tonnes in the same period last year. Between November and July, crude edible oil imports rose to 3.2 million tonnes from 2.95 million tonnes a year ago, while refined oil purchases dropped to 86,703 tonnes from 100,773 tonnes.