Edible Oil Imports to India May Ease with Duty Cuts by Russia, Argentina
29-Jul-2025 04:50 PM
Mumbai. The governments of Russia and Argentina, two important edible oil exporting countries of the world, have announced a cut or suspension of export duty to reduce the previous stock.
This will especially benefit India, which is its most important buyer. Most of the soybean oil imports in India are from Argentina, while sunflower oil is imported the most from Russia.
On 25 July 2025, the Russian government had announced to suspend the floating export duty on sunflower oil and its DOC till 31 August 2025 and after that the Argentine government has decided to significantly cut the export duty on soybean, soy oil and soymeal as well as sunflower oil so that the competitive ability of these products can be increased in the international export market.
Due to the duty cut in these two important exporting countries, there will be pressure on the prices of edible oil in the global market and imports in India will become cheaper. As a result, the price of edible oils in the domestic market may decrease slightly during the festive months.
The government of Latin American country- Argentina, under its decision announced on July 26, has reduced the export duty on soybean oil and soybean meal from 31 percent to 24.5 percent and on soybean from 33 percent to 26 percent.
The President of Argentina says that this duty cut is permanent and no change will be made in it during his tenure. It is worth noting that on 27 January 2025, the same duty rate was temporarily implemented till 30 June, but the old rates became effective again from July 1.
Along with soybean oil, sunflower oil is also imported on a large scale from Argentina to India, whereas sunflower oil is imported in large quantities from Russia and soybean oil is imported in limited quantities.
In Russia, a floating export duty of 4739 rubles per tonne on sunflower oil and 1054-1244 rubles per tonne on sunflower cake was imposed from July 1, 2025, but from July 25 it was postponed till August 31.
There is sufficient stock of sunflower and value added products available in Russia and new consignments are also going to arrive soon.