High output cuts edible oil imports by 12%

While the import of edible oils went down by 12 per cent in the 2005-06 oil year (November-October) in the wake of higher domestic output, the import of non-edible vegetable oils rose sharply by 73 per cent.

The import of vanaspati, however, spurted by 50 per cent from around 2 lakh tonne in 2004-05 to 3 lakh tonne in 2005-06. On the whole, the vegetable oil imports dropped marginally by about 4 per cent.

Among the edible oils, too, the share of palm oils in the total imports dropped marginally by 2 per cent to 58 per cent and that of soft oils spurted by the similar margin to 42 per cent.

These trends emerge from the estimates of vegetable oil imports for the last oil year ended October 31 released by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEAI) on Tuesday. The estimates put the total edible oil imports in 2005-06 at 44.2 lakh tonne, down 12 per cent from 50.4 lakh tonne in 2004-05.

The import of non-edible oils in 2005-06 was estimated at 7.1 lakh tonne, up 73 per cent from 4.1 lakh tonne in the previous year.

The total vegetable oil imports, including vanaspati, are assessed at 54.3 lakh tonne in 2005-06, against 56.5 lakh tonne in 2004-05, marking a slide of 4 per cent.

The SEAI has attributed the reduction in total vegetable oil imports to higher domestic oilseed production in 2005-06 and large carryover inventory of rapeseed-mustard held by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), which is designated by the government as the nodal agency for providing price support to oilseeds.

These stocks became available for crushing in the last four months, resulting in lower imports.

Notably, though the imports of crude palm oil (CPO) remained almost at the same level as in the previous year, those of other palm products registered a drop. These products include refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palmolein, crude palmolein and crude palm kernel oil, among others.

As a result, the total import of palm products fell from 30 lakh tonne in 2004-05 to 25.7 lakh tonne in 2005-06, marking a decrease of 14 per cent.

The total import of soft oils, such as soybean and sunflower oil, was estimated at 18.48 lakh tonne, against a little over 20 lakh tonne in the previous year.

The import of soybean oil in 2005-06 was assessed at 17.03 lakh tonne. Soybean oil is imported largely from Argentina and a small quantity from Brazil. The sunflower imports, estimated at 100,843 tonne, come mainly from Argentina under tariff rate quota.

Much of the sharp 73 per cent rise in the import of non-edible oils was accounted for by increased shipments towards the end of the last oil year.

In October 2006 alone, these imports crossed 1 lakh tonne, touching the highest-ever monthly level of 102,979 tonne.

These consignments consisted mainly of palm fatty acid distillate (39,685 tonne) and crude palm stearin (32,358 tonne). The total import of non-edible oils in October 2005 was only 38,708 tonne.

The SEAI has drawn the attention of the government to this alarming increase in the import of non-edible oils of late.