Edible oil imports by India fell by 30% in September following the government’s introduction of increased import duties on the commodity, according to sources.
Vegetable oil imports totalled 1.1M tonnes in September and the country’s overall stocks dropped from 2.93M tonnes the previous month to 2.45M tonnes, the 16 October report said.
India’s palm oil imports also decreased by around one-third in the period due to the high cost of the commodity compared to other edible oils, Shankar Thakkar, president of All India Edible Oil Traders Federation, was quoted as saying.
At 527,314 metric tonnes, palm oil imports had reached their lowest level in the last six months, while sunflower oil imports had also dropped to a 10-month low, he added.
India imports most of its palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it buys soyabean oil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
Soyabean oil imports also fell by 15.4% to 384,382 tonnes and sunflower oil imports dropped by 46.2% to 152,803 tonnes, the lowest level in the last 10 months.
Although it was unlikely that prices would come down at the time of the report due to festivals such as Diwali, after that locally produced oilseeds would start coming to market on a large scale which could bring down prices due to weak demand, according to Thakkar.