Stock of edible oils reduced due to reduced imports in China

16-Oct-2024 11:20 AM

Shanghai. Due to reduced import of vegetable oils in China, the largest importer of soybean, the outstanding surplus stock has decreased.

Compared to last year, there was a sharp decline of 31 percent in the import of vegetable oil in September this year and its quantity came down to 6.27 lakh tonnes.

As a result, the stock of palm oil decreased by 15 percent at the end of September as compared to August. The stock of rapeseed oil also decreased but the stock of soybean oil increased slightly.

According to the available data, at the end of August 2024, China had a surplus stock of 19.86 lakh tonnes of edible oil including 5.41 lakh tonnes of palm oil, 10.23 lakh tonnes of soybean oil and 4.22 lakh tonnes of rapeseed-canola oil, which decreased to 19.26 lakh tonnes at the end of September.

The September stock included 4.62 lakh tonnes of palm oil, 10.59 lakh tonnes of soybean oil and 4.05 lakh tonnes of rapeseed-canola oil.

Earlier, at the end of July, there was a total stock of 18.81 lakh tonnes of edible oil, including 4.41 lakh tonnes of palm oil, 11.01 lakh tonnes of soybean oil and 4.29 lakh tonnes of rapeseed-canola oil.

China mainly imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, soybean oil from America, Argentina and Brazil and canola-rapeseed oil from Canada and the European Union. Apart from this, sunflower oil and groundnut oil are also imported there.

In a way, China is the second largest importer of edible oils after India. Apart from edible oils, there is also a huge import of whole oilseeds, in which soybean is the most prominent.

It is imported mainly from Brazil and America. China also imports large quantities of Canola (a high-yield mustard) from Canada, but its anti-dumping investigation is currently underway there.