The import of palm oil rose by 21.58% to 7,99,346 tonnes in May compared to 6,57,454 tonnes palm oil import in May 2016. According to industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA), the rise in import of palm oil was due to fall in output of domestic vegetable oil as farmers were reluctant to sell oilseeds below the minimum support price for processing.
Among palm oil products, import of RBD palmolein increased by 12.73% to 2.94 lakh tonnes in May this year from 2.61 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. The shipment of crude palm oil (CPO) rose by 26% to 4.92 lakh tonnes, as against 3.91 lakh tonnes, while the import of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) jumped more than four-fold to 12,497 tonnes, from 4,499 tonnes in the said period.
Among soft oil, import of sunflower oil increased to 1.54 lakh tonnes in May this year, from 1.50 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period. The shipment of rapeseed-mustard oil also increased to 29,143 tonnes, from 18,718 tonnes, and the import of soyabean oil rose sharply to 3.40 lakh tonnes from 1.78 lakh tonnes in the period under review.