India's vegetable oil imports surge 51% in September on higher crude palm oil shipments

India's vegetable oil imports jumped 51 per cent to 16.39 lakh tonnes in September from a year earlier, driven by a surge in crude palm oil shipments, while refined oil imports dropped to zero for the first time since 2021, an industry body said on Wednesday.

Total vegetable oil imports, comprising both edible and non-edible oils, stood at 10.87 lakh tonnes in September 2023, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.

The shift away from refined oils followed the government's decision to widen the import duty gap between crude palm oil and refined RBD palmolein to 19.25 percentage points from 8.25 percentage points, effective May 31, making refined oil imports uneconomical.

"The government's decision to increase the duty difference is a bold and timely move," the SEA said, adding it had discouraged refined palmolein imports and shifted demand to crude oils, revitalising the domestic refining sector.

Imports of refined RBD palmolein were zero in September, compared with 84,279 tonnes a year earlier, the SEA said.

The country imported 16.04 lakh tonnes of edible oils and 35,100 tonnes of non-edible oils during the month.

Crude Palm Oil (CPO) imports nearly doubled to 8.24 lakh tonnes from 4.32 lakh tonnes a year earlier, while crude sunflower oil shipments rose to 2.72 lakh tonnes from 1.52 lakh tonnes, the data showed.

Crude soybean oil imports climbed to 5.03 lakh tonnes from 3.84 lakh tonnes, while Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO) shipments fell to 4,255 tonnes from 10,525 tonnes.

Edible oil stocks at various ports stood at 20 lakh tonnes as of Oct 1, higher than the previous month due to increased imports over the past four months, the SEA said.

India, the world's biggest edible oil importer, sources palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil and Russia, and sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine.