India’s vegetable oil imports surged to a four-month high in November as refiners ramped up purchases of soyoil and sunflower oil, replenishing inventories after robust festival season demand, a leading trade body said on Thursday.
The country’s vegetable oil imports in November rose to 1.63 million metric tons, up 10.4% from a month ago, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
The world’s biggest edible oil importer celebrated the Dussehra and Diwali festivals in October and November, increasing the consumption of sweets and fried food.
Soyoil imports increased 19.3% in November to 407,648 tons and sunflower oil imports surged 42.5% to 340,660 tons, the SEA said.
The country’s palm oil imports fell 0.4% from October to 841,993 metric tons, it said.
Argentina has been selling soyoil at very competitive prices for the past two months, leading to higher imports by India but putting pressure on local soybean prices, said B V Mehta, executive director of SEA.
Soybean prices are trading below the government-set floor price of 4,892 rupees per 100 kg and are likely to remain under pressure until the flow of excess soyoil is restricted, Mehta said.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
Palm oil usually trades at a discount to soybean oil and sunflower oil, but is currently holding a premium over these competing oils.
“Palm oil’s premium is forcing Indian refiners to buy more soyoil and sunflower oil. We could see a sharp drop in palm oil imports in December,” said a Mumbai-based dealer.
(Reuters)