India's refined palm oil imports to surge on low prices - Ruchi Soya exec.

India Dec 20 - India is likely to import a record 4 million tonnes of refined palm oil in 2013/14 as Indonesian suppliers are offering discount over the crude variety due to favourable export duty structure, an executive at the country's top edible oil buyer said.

Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, has hiked crude palm oil export taxes and cut the duty on the refined variant, shifting the economics for India, the world's largest vegetable oils importer, to refined product.

India's imports are traditionally dominated by crude oils which are then refined for the domestic market. But cheaper import of refined palm oil is keeping local refining capacity idle.

"Going by the current trend it seems imports of RBD (refined, bleached and deodorised) palm oil would be nearly half of total palm oil imports. Indonesia has duty advantage," Nitesh Shahra, president, refinery division of Ruchi Soya, told Reuters on Friday.

Indonesia has been offering RBD palm oil at a discount of $20 to $25 per tonne over crude palm oil and can offer higher discount to boost sales, he said.

India imported 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil in 2012/13 marketing year ended on Oct. 31, including a record 2.2 million tonnes, or 26.5 percent, of RBD palm oil, the data compiled by Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) showed.

Source : reuters.com