National workshop held to implement revised WOPPA Order

13-Nov-2025 11:08 AM

New Delhi. The Central Department of Food and Public Distribution has notified the revised Vegetable Oil Products Production and Availability (Regulation) Order, 2025 (WOPPA Order), paving the way for significant reforms in the edible oil industry and trade.

Its objective is to bring transparency to the entire edible oil industry, ensure accurate data collection, and regular monitoring.

Effective steps are being taken to implement this WOPPA Order comprehensively and effectively. To ensure smooth and easy implementation, capacity-building workshops will be organized to provide the industry with complete information on the procedures for submitting their data.

Under the WOPPA Order, oilseed oil crushing and processing units have been asked to provide the government with monthly reports on their production, marketing, and stockpiles, so that the government has up-to-date information on the supply and availability of edible oils in the country and can assess the need for imports from abroad.

In fact, India has long been the world's largest importer of edible oils. Its average import of edible oils has reached a high of 15-16 million tons, costing a significant amount of precious foreign exchange.

It is often said that the excessive import of cheap edible oils into the country prevents indigenous farmers from receiving adequate incentives to increase oilseed production.

The Food Department is now organizing a series of capacity-building workshops at the national level in major cities across the country, with a special focus on edible oil processing units.

The first workshop in this series has been scheduled for November 15, 2025, at the Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) auditorium in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.