Dec 16, 2020
The promoting period for vegetable oils- edible as well as non-edible oils, runs between November to October. Edible oil imports slip by 2% to 11.02 lakh ton in November on lesser refined palm oil batches
According to industry data, India’s vegetable oil imports collapsed by 2 percent in November to 11.02 lakh tons due to a sharp decline in inward shipments of refined palm oil as stated.
“Import of vegetable oils during November 2020 is reported at 11, 02,899 tonnes compared to 11, 27,220 tonnes for November 2019,” Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement. Edible oil imports declined to 10, 83,329 tons in November from 11, 00,424 tonnes in the same month last year.
This year in November 2020, only 10,000 tons of refined oil (RBD Palmolein) was imported as against 1, 22,409 tonnes in the same month last year.
SEA said the country is importing crude oil more as RBD Palmolein has been placed under restricted list and imports are allowed but subject to license.
“However, there is a change in import duty on CPO (crude palm oil) and its import duty reduced to 27.5 percent from 37.5 per cent, while duty on soft oils remained unchanged with effect from November 27, 2020. This reduction of duty on CPO may encourage larger import of palm oil at the cost of soft oils import in the coming month,” SEA Executive Director B.V. Mehta said.
India’s import of vegetable oils fell 13 percent in 2019-20 oil year that ended last month to 135.25 lakh tons, the lowest in six years, on lower demand for cooking oils from eateries, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, and other catering companies since the end of March due to the outburst of the virus.