Edible Oil Imports Likely to Fall to 1.28 Million Tonnes in October
04-Nov-2025 06:23 PM
Mumbai. A leading industry trade analyst predicts that India's total edible oil imports are expected to decline to 1.28 million tonnes in October 2025, a 20 percent decrease compared to September 2025 and a 10 percent decrease compared to October 2024.
Data from the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SOI) shows that during September 2025, India imported approximately 1.6 million tonnes of edible oil and 40,000 tonnes of non-edible oil, totaling 1.64 million tonnes of vegetable oil.
According to the association's data, during the first 11 months of the 2024-25 marketing season (November-October), i.e. from November 2024 to September 2025, a total of about 143 lakh tonnes of edible oil was imported into the country, which is 0.5 lakh tonnes or 3 percent less than the total import of 148 lakh tonnes in the same period of the 2023-24 season. The edible oil import data for October 2025 will be released by the association around mid-November.
Based on the estimates of the analyst firm, the total import of edible oil in the entire marketing season of 2024-25 stands at 152.60 lakh tonnes, which is 0.7 lakh tonnes or about 4 percent less than the import of 159.60 lakh tonnes in the entire season of 2023-24.
According to analysts, palm oil imports into India are expected to decline to 5.99 lakh tonnes in October 2025, a 28 percent decrease from September imports and a 29 percent decrease from October 2024, marking the lowest level in the past five months.
Similarly, soybean oil imports are projected to decline by 17 percent to 4.15 lakh tonnes in October 2025 compared to September, but this import is 21 percent higher than October 2024.
Sunflower oil imports are also expected to decline by 5 percent to 2.58 lakh tonnes in October 2025 compared to September, but this is approximately 8 percent higher than October 2024 imports. In fact, sunflower oil imports increased to 2.72 lakh tonnes in September 2025, the highest level in the past eight months.
However, it was not fully consumed, and outstanding stocks remained in October. On November 1, 2025, several ships carrying approximately 350,000 tons of imported edible oils were docked at Indian ports.
These stocks will be unloaded and sent to the domestic market over the next few days. This includes 167,000 tons of palm oil, 156,000 tons of soybean oil, and 27,000 tons of sunflower oil.