India's import of vegetable oils is likely to increase to new record at 12.3 million tonnes in the 2014-15 oil year starting this month, as slow start of domestic crushing would boost demand for overseas supplies, an industry official said today.
The country is estimated to have imported 11.61 million tonnes of veg oils in the 2013-14 oil year (November-October).
India meets 60 per cent of its annual vegetable oil demand of 17-18 million tonnes via imports. Palm oils make up 71 per cent of the country's total vegetable oil imports.
"For the 2014-15 oil year, I expect India's vegetable oil imports to create new record of almost 12.3 million tonnes," said Dorab Mistry, director of Godrej International, in his presentation at a conference held at Guangzhou.
Since India's crushing season has got off to a slow start, Mistry said the country is likely to continue to import larger quantities of crude palm oil (CPO) and that will bring palm oil back into favour with Indian refiners.
Palm oil imports would rise to 8.75 million tonnes this year from 7.71 million tonnes in 2013-14, while shipments of soyabean oil as well as sunflower oil would be at 1.8 million tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes, respectively, he said.
"India will store her domestically produced oilseeds and will front-load her vegetable oil imports," he said
The domestic consumption of vegetable oils will be strong on account of low prices and a "feel good factor" prevalent with the new government, he added.
India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia and small quantities of crude soft oils, including soyabean oil, from Latin America and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia.
