India's imports of edible oil fell by 40% to 7.07 lakh tonnes in May: SEA

05 Jun 2020 Evaluate

Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) in its latest report has stated that India's imports of edible oil fell by 40% to 7.07 lakh tonnes in May, compared to 11.80 lakh tonnes in May 2019. It was lowest in the month since 2011, due to sluggish demand from bulk users like hotels and restaurants which remained shut due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Edible oil imports have been declining since the imposition of lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The oil year runs from November to October.

Palm oil imports, which comprise more than 60% of the total edible oil shipments, declined by 52.69% to 3.87 lakh tonnes in May this year from 8.18 lakh tonnes in the year-ago month. Among palm oils, import of RBD palmolein fell sharply to 16,250 tonnes in May this year from 3.71 lakh tonnes a year ago. Import of RBD palmolein has been declining since the product was brought under restricted trade category from January 8 this year.

Import of crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil declined by 17% to 3.70 lakh tonnes in May this year from 4.47 lakh tonnes in the year-ago month. This decline in imports of palm products have directly benefited the imports of soft oils, viz. soybean and sunflower, which is evident by their increase in imports by 7% and 11%, respectively, during November-May period of this oil year, thanks to household demand in consumer packs.

Import of sunflower oil rose by 2% to 1.33 lakh tonnes in May this year as compared with 1.30 lakh tonnes in May 2019, while soybean oil imports declined by 9% to 1.87 lakh tonnes from 2.32 lakh tonnes in the said period. The overall edible oil imports during November-May period of 2019-20 oil year also declined by 18% to 68.89 lakh tonnes from 83.84 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, mainly due to 76% fall in shipments of RBD palmolein.

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