Imports of vegetable oil increase by 23%, with edible oil accounting for the lion’s share: report

India’s edible oil imports increased 23% to 9,83,608 tonnes in February, owing mostly to an increase in exports of refined palm oil, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) on Monday.

In the same month last year, edible oil imports totalled 7,96,568 tonnes.

The total import of vegetable oils (edible and non-edible) grew to 10,19,997 tonnes in February 2021, up from 8,38,607 tonnes in February 2021, according to the SEA of India.

From 7,96,568 tonnes in February 2021 to 9,83,608 tonnes in February 2021, edible oils imports increased to 9,83,608 tonnes.

Imports of refined palm oil climbed from 6,000 tonnes to 3,02,928 tonnes.

Imports of non-edible oil decreased to 36,389 tonnes this month, down from 42,039 tonnes the previous year.

The overall import of vegetable oils increased by 7% to 46,91,158 tonnes during the first four months of the 2021-22 oil year, which runs from November to October, compared to 43,94,760 tonnes during the same time the previous year.

According to the SEA, RBD Palmolein imports increased from 21,601 tonnes to 5,19,450 tonnes.

In contrast, imports of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) fell from 24,89,105 tonnes to 15,62,639 tonnes, according to the report.

Every month, India imports around 1.75-2 lakh tonnes of sunflower oil.

India gets a lot of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. Crude Soybean Degummed Oil is primarily imported from Argentina and Brazil, whereas Crude Sunflower Oil is primarily imported from Ukraine and Russia.