| Date: |
14-11-2014 |
| Subject: |
Vegetable oil imports up 12 per cent in 2013-14 to record 11.82 MT |
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NEW DELHI: India's vegetable oils imports rose 12 per cent to all time high of 11.82 million tonnes in the 2013-14 marketing year ended October, on rise in domestic consumption and low rates of cooking oils.
India imports about 60 per cent of the annual domestic demand of vegetable oils (comprising edible and non-edible oils) of about 19 million tonnes. At present, there is 2.5 per cent import duty on crude edible oils and 10 per cent on refined edible oils.
"Import of vegetable oils during 2013-14 oil year (November-October) reached at record level of 11.82 million tonnes compared to 10.68 MT for the same period of last year, up by 11.7 per cent," Industry body Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) said in a statement.
Import of edible oil increased to 11.62 million tonnes during 2013-14 from 10.39 million tonnes in the previous year, while that of non-edible oils declined to 0.2 million tonnes from 0.29 million tonnes during the period under purview.
"The main reasons for increase in import of vegetable oil are -- i) Local consumption of edible oils further increased due to increase in per capita consumption (4.5 per cent) and population growth (1.76 per cent). Also lower price of vegetable oils boosted the consumption," SEA said.
Secondly, it pointed out that nil duty on palm products by Indonesia and Malaysia pushed the export to India during last quarter. Lastly, higher closing stock of vegetable oils by 4,60,000 tonnes to 18,60,000 tonnes led to increased imports.
"Import of edible oil has sharply increased due to stagnant oilseed production and rising demand," SEA noted.
The association said that import of refined oil fell by 29 per cent at 1.57 million tonnes in 2013-14 compared to 2.22 million tonnes in the previous year.
However, import of crude oil went up by 23 per cent at 10.04 million tonnes in 2013-14 as compared to 8.16 million tonnes in the previous year.
During 2013-14, palm oil import decreased to 7.95 million tonnes compared to 8.29 million tonnes last year, while soft oil (soyabean, sunflower and rapeseed oils) import increased to 3.66 million tonnes from 2.09 million tonnes.
India imports palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, while soyabean oil is being imported from Brazil and Argentina.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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