India Seeks to Boost Cheap Palm Oil Imports from Traditional Suppliers

27-Aug-2025 12:32 PM

Mumbai. India's edible oil importers no longer want to depend only on traditional supplier countries. Therefore, they are trying to increase its purchase from new countries. For the first time in the last 5 years, an import contract of 6000 tonnes of rapeseed oil has been signed from the United Arab Emirates for August delivery because the domestic market price of mustard oil has jumped 34 percent compared to last year and reached the highest level in the last three and a half years. The price of mustard oil is expected to remain high and strong till the new mustard crop is ready and reaches the markets in March 2026.

Traditionally, palm oil is mainly imported in India from Indonesia and Malaysia, while soybean oil is imported from Argentina and Brazil and sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine. Apart from this, edible oils are also imported from some other countries including Nepal.

In July, the stock price of rapeseed oil jumped to a high of $1914 per tonne, which is 34 percent more than last year and the highest level since February 2022. Some importers are getting more attracted to cheap soybean oil, due to which its import is increasing rapidly.

For the first time, Indian importers have been reported to be buying palm oil from countries like Colombia and Guatemala.

Not only is there a good stock of palm oil there, but its producers are also offering to export it at a discounted price.

Apart from this, import of edible oil is also likely to start from Vietnam where a crushing-processing plant has been set up by a multinational company.

Import of edible oil is also being increased from Thailand. Last year, a large quantity of sunflower oil was imported from Russia and Ukraine as well as Romania.

Indian importers are very intelligent and smart. Wherever they see the offer of edible oil at a cheap price, they start buying it from there.

Last month, 1.50 lakh tonnes of soybean oil import contract was made from China for September-October delivery but when the prices there started rising, India stopped buying.

Exporters from Colombia and Guatemala are keeping the export offer price of their palm oil so low so that its cost of reaching India can be somewhat lower than that of Indonesia and Malaysia. It takes 45 days for the goods to arrive from there.