Edible oil imports down 16% in Dec on lower shipments of crude palm oil: SEA

India's edible oil imports declined 16 per cent annually in December to 13.07 lakh tonnes due to lower shipments of crude and refined palm oils, according to industry data released on Friday.

Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) data showed imports of edible oils fell to 13,07,686 tonnes in December last year from 15,55,780 tonnes in the year-ago period.

In the edible oil category, crude palm oil imports decreased to 6,20,020 tonnes from 8,43,849 tonnes, while (Refined Bleached Deodorised) RBD Palmolein's inward shipments slipped marginally to 2,51,667 tonnes from 2,56,398 tonnes.

However, imports of crude sunflower oil increased to 2,60,850 tonnes from 1,94,009 tonnes during the period under review.

Non-edible oil inward shipments fell to 4,000 tonnes in December last year from 10,349 tonnes in the same month of the previous year.

SEA said imports of vegetable oils (edible oils and non-edible oils) in December 2023 fell 16 per cent to 1,311,686 tonnes from 15,66,129 tonnes in December 2022.

The oil marketing year runs from November to October.

During November-December period of last year, the total import of vegetable oils declined 21 per cent to 24,72,276 tonnes as compared to 31,11,669 tonnes in the corresponding period of the preceding year.

Imports of edible oils declined to 24,55,778 tonnes from 30,84,540 tonnes, while imports of non-edible oils dipped to 16,498 tonnes from 27,129 tonnes.

During November-December 2023, SEA data showed that the share of refined oils (RBD Palmolein) has increased to 17 per cent from 15 per cent while crude oils' share declined to 83 per cent from 85 per cent as compared to the same period of 2022.

In the first two months of 2023-24 oil marketing year, palm oil imports decreased to 17,63,677 tonnes from 22,50,924 tonnes.

Soft oil imports declined to 6,92,101 tonnes from 8,33,616 tonnes.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the major suppliers of RBD Palmolein and Crude Palm Oil (CPO) to India.

During November-December, Indonesia was a major supplier of CPO (716,558 tonnes) and RBD Palmolein (385,394 tonnes).

Imports of CPO from Malaysia stood at 446,335 tonnes while RBD Palmolein at 37,342 tonnes.

In the case of crude soyabean degummed oil, India mainly imported from Argentina (148,043 tonnes) followed by Brazil (101,500 tonnes).

Crude sunflower oil was mainly imported from Russia (113,504 tonnes).

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