Edible oil imports jump to close to 15 lakh tonnes in May
13-Jun-2024 08:20 PM
Mumbai. Data from Solvent Extractors Association of India (SIA) shows that edible oil imports rose to a high of 14.98 lakh tonnes in May 2024, which was much higher than the imports of 13.04 lakh tonnes in April and 10.53 lakh tonnes in May 2023.
In fact, the total import of vegetable oil (edible + non-edible) in India increased by 45 per cent during May 2024 as compared to May 2023.
Despite this, during the first 7 months of the current marketing season, i.e. from November 2023 to May 2024, the total import of edible oils could reach only around 85.68 lakh tonnes, which was about 5 lakh tonnes less than the imports of 90.55 lakh tonnes during the same period of the 2022-23 season.
It is worth noting that compared to the previous season, the import of edible oils declined in the first four months of the current marketing season, while it increased during the last three months. Imports increased at the fastest pace in May.
On June 1, 2024, a total stock of 24.17 lakh tonnes of edible oil was available at Indian ports, including 6.68 lakh tonnes and 17.49 lakh tonnes in the pipeline, while its quantity was 23.24 lakh tonnes on May 1 and 29.41 lakh tonnes on June 1, 2023.
The highest stock of edible oils of 37.35 lakh tonnes was recorded on September 1, 2023, while it was also at a high level of 36.26 lakh tonnes on October 1, 2023.
According to the association, during the last one month, due to disruption in the supply of soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil, its international and domestic market price increased.
Due to the strike of workers in Argentina, the pace of soybean crushing slowed down, due to which there was no adequate supply of soy oil.
On the other hand, due to torrential rains and severe floods in Brazil, soybean crop was affected and about 27.10 lakh tons of crop was damaged.
Similarly, the lean or off season of sunflower oil supply in Russia and Ukraine is currently going on, hence the supply from there is also decreasing.
During the last one month, due to low global availability and high prices of soybean oil and sunflower oil, Indian importers got encouragement to increase the import of palm oil from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand as its price remained almost stable.