India’s palm oil imports in October rose 60% from September to 845,682 metric tons on festive demand and as refiners boosted purchases to replenish stocks depleted by lower-than-usual imports recently, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said on Wednesday.
Higher purchases by the world’s biggest vegetable oils importer could lead to lower palm oil stocks in key producers Indonesia and Malaysia, supporting benchmark futures.
Indians celebrated the Dussehra and Diwali festivals in the last few weeks, increasing the consumption of sweets and fried food.
Imports of soyoil declined 11% to 341,818 tons and sunflower oil imports rose 56.5% to 239,116 tons on a monthly basis, the industry trade body said.
Import of edible oils during the 2023-24 marketing year ended Oct. 31 reduced to 15.96 million tons from 16.47 million tons the previous year due to larger domestic oilseed crops and higher prices that squeezed demand to some extent, the SEA said.
Total vegetable oil imports in the year were at 16.2 million tons, down around 3% from a year ago.
Soyoil imports in the year fell 6.4% to 3.44 million tons, while sunflower oil imports rose 16.8% to 3.51 million tons.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
India’s 2024/25 edible oil imports could fall by 1 million tons, considering a likely record domestic oilseeds crop, the SEA said.