India’s palm oil imports have hit its lowest in nearly four and a half years and decreased 38% in the month of May 2018 from a year earlier. A trade body, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) has said that the country imported palm oil of 496,478 tonnes May 2018. The decline was mainly due to higher import tax on the tropical oil made it more expensive. The last lowest was recorded in February 2014.
However, the fall in import of palm oil has been offset by much higher import of other varieties of oil like soyoil, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil, as duty on these soft oils is lower. As per the data, the country’s soyoil imports jumped 16.6% to 396,969 tonnes in May from a year ago and sunflower oil imports more than doubled to 330,985 tonnes, while total imports of edible oils fell 7% to 1.25 million tonnes in May from a year ago. Besides, palm's share in total imports has come down 40% for the first time.
As per the report, palm oil imports might remain under pressure in June as well, helping rival soft oils such as soyoil and sunflower oils gain market share. Besides, in March, India had raised its import tax on crude palm oil to 44% from 30% and lifted the tax on refined palm oil to 54% from 40%. But government kept the duty on soyoil and sunflower oil unchanged at 30% and 25% respectively.