India’s July palm oil imports plunged 43% from a year earlier to their lowest in five months, a leading trade body said on Monday, as demand was curtailed by prices that rallied to a multi-year high.
The country’s palm oil imports in July dropped to 465,606 tonnes while soyoil purchases fell by 22% to 379,892 tonnes, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
India’s sunflower oil imports plunged 66% from the same month last year to 71,838 tonnes, it added.
India buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia while other oils, including soyoil and sunflower oil, are sourced from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia.
“Imports of all edible oils will jump in August. Demand has been improving for edible oil after the government lifted lockdown restrictions,” said one Mumbai-based vegetable oils dealer with a global trading firm.
Palm oil imports could rise above 700,000 tonnes in August after a cut to import tax, the dealer added.
In the last week of June India allowed imports of refined palm oil and cut the import tax on crude palm oil to lower domestic prices that have nearly doubled in the past year, hitting consumers already stung by record fuel prices and reduced incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
– Reuters