May 25, 2021
The Centre holds meeting with all stakeholders to discuss ways and means to ensure availability of edible oil at reasonable prices in the country. Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has made a press release regarding the rising prices of cooking oil. States and business must take all possible steps to soften the edible oil prices
First of its kind meeting, held to discuss ways and means to address the issue of abnormal price increase of edible oil, was attended by Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution, Government of India, Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, producers of edible oil seeds, millers, stockists, wholesalers, various associations of the edible oil industry sector, senior officials of States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The meeting was convened by the Department of Food & Public Distribution, GOI. The objective of the meeting was to coordinate efforts to ensure the availability of edible oils at reasonable prices.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary Food & Public Distribution said that it was important to understand the issues that are contributing to price rise and discuss the same with all the stakeholders so those appropriate strategies can be formulated to address the issue of edible oil prices. It may be noted that the production and domestic availability of oilseeds in India is falls way short of the needs of domestic demand for edible oil. A big volume of edible oil is imported each year. Changes in international prices of edible oil makes an impact on the domestic Indian price of edible oil.
The need to hold the meeting was also felt because Centre got concerned about more than a proportionate rise in the prices of edible oil in India as compared with the rise in international prices of edible oil during the last few months.
Secretary Food & Public Distribution said that mission “Atmanirbhar Bharat” requires the country to be self-sufficient in edible oils. The dependency of almost 60% on imports is not appropriate to the growth of the edible oil industry in India. There is a need to strike a balance between short-term measures to keep prices.in check and long-term measure of keeping India Atmanirbhar in Edible oil production”
In the meeting, it was felt that there was indeed a need to strike a balance between measures to keep high prices.in check and measures to make India Atmanirbhar in the area of Edible oil production.
Secretary said that all the States and stakeholders from the side of the business must take all possible steps to soften the prices.
He added that suggestions presented in the meeting would help in arriving at wholesome solutions to address the issue instability of edible oil prices and domestic growth oilseeds sector. He asked the participants to mail the suggestions and other inputs as the Centre makes efforts to ensure the availability of Edible oils at reasonable prices.
Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers (FSNM) has also given its recommendations to the ministry and has shown great concern regarding the rising price of cooking oil.