India doubles edible oil import in six years.

PUNE: Import of vegetable oils during oil year 2012-13 (Nov.'12 to Oct.'13), including edible oil and non-edible oils, reached at record level of 106.8 lakh tons compared to 101.9 lakh tons for the same period of last year; up by 4.77%. Import of edible oil has nearly doubled in six years due to stagnant oilseed production and rising demand.

Import of vegetable oils during October 2013 is reported at 1,021,973 tons compared to 1,036,107 tons for Oct.'12 , which is slightly down by 1.36%, stated a release by Solvent Extractors Association of India.

The reason for increase in import of vegetable oils is that the overall production of vegetable oils was stagnant at 80.9 lakh tons compared to 81.5 lakh tons in previous year.

Local consumption of edible oils further increased due to increase in per capita consumption (3%) and population growth (1.76%). Also lower price of vegetable oils boosted the consumption of vegetable oils.

Due to inverted export duty structure by Indonesia and Malaysia, import of RBD Palmolein substantially increased during the year. Import of refined palmolein during April to October 2013 jumped to over 16.0 lakh tons compared to 7.5 lakh tons during the same period of last year.

Closing stock of imported vegetable oils as on October 31, 2013 decreased to 14 lakh tons compared to 15.7 lakh tons as on October 31, 2012.

Import of non-edible oil gradually reduced from 6.5 lakh tones (2007-08) to 2.1 lakh tones in 2011-12 due to higher local refining of CPO. However in 2012-13. Import of non-edible oils increased due to reduction in local processing of CPO.

Import of Vegetable Oils in 1st quarter of the oil year was higher, however in the 2nd quarter maintained the same level. In the 3rd quarter, import increased by 8.02%, however, in 4th quarter, import is down by 9.68%. The overall import increased by 4.77% over the previous year.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com