NEW DELHI: The share of palm oil in India’s vegetable oil imports reached 70 per cent in September as purchases of other oils by Indian companies fell sharply.
India’s palm oil imports rose 3.2 per cent to 879,947 tonnes last month compared with 852,534 tonnes in August, according to monthly trade data.
Imports of soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oils dropped to 374,496 tonnes in September from 670,727 tonnes in the previous month, bringing down the share of soft oils in the overall vegetable oil imports to 30 per cent from 44 per cent in August.
International prices of palm oil have gone down in the range of 1.0 to 3.0 per cent in one year, leading to higher imports of palm oil products, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said.
India’s imports of RBD palm olein (refined, bleached and deodorised form of palm oil) in September were at the same level as in August but the volumes dropped to one-third from Malaysia as a result of the Indian government removing a duty concession on Malaysia’s refined palm oil earlier agreed under a bilateral trade pact. – Bernama
