Agri Buzz: India Plans To Extend Edible Oil Imports.

India's food ministry plans to extend a program to import one million tons of edible oil by state-run trading agencies for subsidized sales to the poor by a year, according to senior ministry officials. The move will let the world's top edible oil importer continue supplying cheap cooking oil to millions of poor families. The current program of subsidized edible oil imports will lapse on Sept 30. India's state-run trading agencies have been importing edible oil regularly on behalf of provincial government since July 2008 and selling them below cost for welfare programs. The federal government later reimburses the agencies for selling edible oil below cost.

The state-run trading agencies contracted to import around 360,000 tons of edible oil until the second week of August, of which nearly 200,000 tons has already been supplied to provincial governments, the official added.

India meets more than half of its total edible oil requirement of about 15 million tons through imports from Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil.

The country's total edible oil imports in the November-July period fell 4.4% from a year earlier to 6.10 million tons, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India. o address the vitamin A deficiency because more than half of the world's population depends on the grain to meet 80% of its food calorie requirement.

Source : indiainfoline.com