Marginal rise in edible oil imports

The country's edible oil imports recorded a marginal rise in the first two months of the current oil year (November - December). Globally, edible oil prices are ruling at record highs on huge demand from the biofuel sector.

According to the data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), total imports of edible oils jumped a mere 0.72 per cent to 624,102 tonnes between November and December, 2007, from 619,630 tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

The overall import of vegetable oils for Nov-Dec 2007 is reported at 733,188 tonnes compared to 742,312 tonnes for the previous year, consisting of 624,102 tonnes of edible oil and 109,086 tonnes of non-edible oil. 

INCHING AHEAD Imports of refined and crude edible oils
In tonnes	November		December
	2006	2007	2006	2007
Refined	5500	30014	17489	12019
% of total	2	9	5	4
Crude	246742	317306	349899	264763
% of total	98	91	95	96
Total imports	252242	347320	367388	276782
Palm oils	Nil	347320	333212	269282
% of total	0	100	91	97

Of this, the contribution of non-edible oil declined from 96 per cent (596,641 tonnes) last year to 92 per cent (582,069 tonnes) this year, with the share of refined oil at 8 per cent (42,033 tonnes) compared with 4 per cent (22,989 tonnes) last year.

Meanwhile, total oil imports during December 2007 declined by 25 per cent to 276,782 tonnes from 367,388 tonnes for the same month last year.

The total contribution of non-edible oil during the month stood at 264,763 tonnes (96 per cent) compared with 349,899 tonnes (95 per cent) in December last. Imports of refined oil slumped to 12,019 tonnes in December 2007 from 17,489 tonnes last year.

Palm oil imports during Nov-Dec 2007 stood at 616,602 tonnes compared with 523,204 tonnes for the same period last year, up by 18 per cent, while soft oil imports fell to 7,500 tonnes (soybean only) compared with 96,426 tonnes during the same period last year.

India, which consumes about 13 million tonnes of vegetable oils annually, imports about 5.5 million tonnes.