India is likely to import large quantities of sunflower oil from Russia instead of Ukraine

02-Aug-2024 03:13 PM

Mumbai. India is expected to reduce its sunflower oil imports from Ukraine and increase significantly from Russia in the 2024-25 season.

Clear indications of this have also been received for the last few months. According to a leading trade analyst,

India is expected to import 35 lakh tonnes of crude sunflower oil during 2023-24, which may come down to 34 lakh tonnes in 2024-25. To reach this limit, India will need to increase the import of sunflower oil from Russia, Argentina and even EU member countries.

Sunflower crop is reported to have suffered heavy losses due to severe heat and dry weather in Ukraine, due to which its total production will come down to around 125 lakh tonnes and the oil content in it will also be less.

On the other hand, palm oil imports are estimated to improve from 92 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 to 93 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.

Similarly, the import of soybean oil is expected to increase from 32 lakh tonnes to 33 lakh tonnes and the total import of edible oils is expected to improve from 159 lakh tonnes to 160 lakh tonnes, which is slightly less than the record import of 164.70 lakh tonnes of 2022-23 season. Earlier,

141.46 lakh tonnes of edible oil was imported in 2021-22 and 132.22 lakh tonnes in the marketing season of 2020-21.

According to the analyst, India may face difficulty in importing crude palm oil (CPO) from Indonesia as special incentives are being given to the export of refined palmolein there. New palm oil processing units are being set up in Indonesia.

As far as soybean oil is concerned, its import from Argentina may increase as soybean production has almost doubled there, but soybean oil imports from Brazil may be limited.