India's vegetable oil imports rise 11% in December

15 Jan 2019 Evaluate

Edible oil industry body, Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) reported that India's vegetable oil imports increased by 11% to 12,11,164 tonne, in December this year comparing last year same period's 10,88,783 tonne and forecasted a hike in inward shipments of crude palm oil from Malaysia due to slashing of customs duty.

As per SEA reports, the overall import of vegetable oils during November to December 2018 is reported at 23,45,057 tonnes compared to 23,37,593 tonnes. Edible oil inward shipments dripped to 22,19,147 tonne during November-December 2018 from 22,83,604 tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year, while import of non-edible oils rose to 1,25,910 tonne from 53,989 tonne. The edible oil marketing year runs from November to October.

The government had reduced customs duty on crude palm oil imported from Malaysia to 40% from 44%, while that on refined palmolein to 45% from 54%. As a result, the duty difference between crude palm oil and refined palmolein has come down to 5% from 10%. SEA opinioned that the reduction in the duty difference will encourage larger import of RBD Palmolein in coming months, detrimental to the interest of domestic oil palm cultivation and will also erode the competitiveness of domestic refiners.
During November-December 2018, the import of palm oil increased to 15,03,527 tonne, against 14,39,825 tonne in the year-ago period. However, import of soft oils (soyabean, sunflower and rapeseed) decreased to 7,15,620 tonne from 8,43,779 tonne during the same period of last year.

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