India’s palm oil imports soar by 34.11%(yoy) in April

 Palm oil  accounted for 52% of India’s total edible oil imports of 1,304,409 tonnes in April.

In April, India’s palm oil imports increased by 34.11% year-on-year to 684,000 tonnes, driven by a decrease in global prices, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA). Palm oil made up 52% of India’s total edible oil imports, which amounted to 1,304,409 tonnes. The import of sunflower and soybean oils stood at 6,20,315 tonnes.

Including non-edible oils, total vegetable oil imports rose 26% to 1,318,528 tonnes compared to 10,50,189 tonnes in the previous year.

The drop in global prices, with refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) palmolein and crude palm oil (CPO) falling by nearly US$ 100 per tonne, has spurred the increase in imports. 

Imports of RBD palmolein increased to 124,228 tonnes from 112,248 tonnes in the previous year, and CPO imports surged by 36% to 536,248 tonnes as against 393,856 tonnes last year. Crude palm kernel oil imports saw a nearly six-fold increase to 23,618 tonnes from 3,990 tonnes.

Soybean oil prices decreased by US$ 40 per tonne, while sunflower oil prices dropped by US$ 15 per tonne.

As for the soft oils, Soybean oil imports rose to 385,514 tonnes from 262,455 tonnes, while sunflower oil imports slightly decreased to 234,801 tonnes from 249,122 tonnes.

According to SEA, as of May 1, India had 22.45 lakh tonnes of edible oil stockpiles. As the largest importer of edible oils in the world, India mostly sources its RBD palmolein and CPO from Indonesia and Malaysia. The country sources its soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil, and imports sunflower oil from Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.