Govt scraps mustard oil blending in vanaspati

Centre says it will be difficult to enforce the blending

The government has decided against making the blending of mustard oil in the manufacture of vanaspati mandatory.

"We found that it will be difficult to enforce the blending, and so, we have decided not to make it mandatory. We have also found that vanaspati manufacturers in states like Rajasthan and Punjab have been blending mustard oil voluntarily," said a senior food ministry official.

A 'group of ministers' has been constituted to look into the status of mustard stock with the National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation (Nafed), the official said.

Earlier, an order issued on July 3 by the Vegetable Oil Products Commissioner, had mandated the blending of 20 per cent mustard oil in the manufacture of vanaspati, in addition to the already existing 12 per cent blending of other indigenous oils.

The mustard, thus used, had to be sourced only through Nafed as the latter had procured huge quantities of mustard this year.

It was thought that the decision would help the federation liquidate its huge mustard stock. Nafed had procured about 21 lakh tonne mustard this year at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

In addition, it had a carryover stock of 15 lakh tonne. Till date this year, the federation has offloaded about 10.5 lakh tonne mustard through monthly sales and as oil expeller.

Since August, the monthly disposal by Nafed has been to the tune of three lakh tonne. It is also crushing about 2,000 tonne mustard daily to produce mustard oil. At present, the federation has a stock of about 25.5 lakh tonne mustard.

As things stand, Nafed may be able to dispose of 70-80 per cent of the mustard stock before its next year procurement.