Vegetable Oil Imports Down 23% in August.

India's vegetable oil imports fell by 23.2% to 8.17 lakh tonne last month because of record oilseeds production in the 2010-11 crop year ended June, according to industry data released today.

The country had imported 10.65 lakh tonne in the same month last year.

Imports declined by nearly eight per cent at 68.6 lakh tonne in the first 10 months of 2010-11 oil year (November- October), as against 74.47 lakh tonne in the year-ago period, Solvent Extractors'' Association (SEA) said in a statement.

Oilseeds production stood at a record 31.1 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year. In this year's Kharif season, the output is estimated at record 20.89 million tonne.

Still, the country needs to import vegetable oils to meet domestic demand. Palm oil is imported from Indonesia and Malaysia, while soyabean oil comes from Argentina and Brazil.

Import duty on crude edible oil is nil and 7.5% refined oil.

SEA said the current stock of edible oils at various ports is estimated at 5.7 lakh tonne and about 8.2 lakh tonne in pipelines as on September 1.
Out of 8.17 lakh tonne of vegetables oils imported in August, edible oil was 7.85 lakh tonne and non-edible oil was 31,922 tonne. In the same month last year, edible oil import stood at 10 lakh and non-edible oil at 64,699 tonne.

In the current oil year till August, the import of edible oils has declined to 66.14 lakh tonne against 71 lakh tonne in the year-ago period.

The non-edible oils import fell to 2.46 lakh tonne between November 2010 and August 2011 against 3.47 lakh tonne in the corresponding period of previous oil year.

Source : moneycontrol.com