Edible oil tariff freeze may be revised

India will decide on lifting the freeze on import base price of edible oils after taking into consideration the international price scenario and recommendations of the agricultural ministry, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam has said.

"The final decision on lifting the freeze would be taken only after analyzing all the factors," Palanimanickam said. The central government has not revised the base import price of soyoil since September 15 and that of crude palm and its derivatives since July 31.

Base import price is the rate at which edible oils are imported in India irrespective of the landing cost.

The government usually revises base import price of edible oils every fortnight to align them with international prices, but since September 15, the base price has not been revised to keep local edible oil prices under check as international prices, mainly of palm oil, soared.

At present, the landed cost of crude palm oil is around $500 per tonne, while the tariff value is calculated at $447 per tonne. In case of the crude soyoil, landed cost is over $600 per tonne, while the base price is calculated at $580 per tonne.

Domestic mustard sowing down 39.5%

Mustard sowing in India continued to lag behind, with just 2.6 million hectares sown by farmers during Oct 1-Nov 2, government data showed on Monday.

The sowing has declined more than 39 per cent year-on-year.Total oilseeds sowing is also down at 3.6 million hectares compared with 4.9 million hectares a year ago.

Mustard and wheat are the most important rabi or winter-sown crops. They are sown from late September and harvested from February. India's edible oil imports mostly depend on the oilseeds' output.

The country imported 3.78 million hectares of edible oil in the 11 months to September, while it imported around 363,569 tonne edible oil in September, down 21 per cent from a year earlier period, according to the data released by the Solvent Extractors' Association.

Tokyo rubber futures ended higher

Tokyo rubber futures ended higher on Monday on renewed buying and short covering by speculative day traders, after falling in volatile trade earlier in the session.

The benchmark six-month contract on the Tokyo commodities Exchange rose 2.5 yen to settle at 215.5 yen ($1.83) per kg, rebounding from an intra-day low of 210.4 yen, the level which sparked short-covering, dealers said.

"The market tried the strong support of 210.0 yen, but prices could not break that level, so it could rebound," a Japanese dealer said.

Prices were likely to move in the narrow range of 210.0-220.0 yen per kg as bullish trends in other commodities lent technical support, dealers said.

Gold rose to another two-month high on Monday on follow-up buying after strong gains in New York on Friday, with Japanese participants buying actively on their return from a three-day weekend.

But rubber future prices were not expected to rise sharply over the next few days, as day traders were expected to persist in the strategy adopted on Monday by pushing prices down in early trade and cashing in profit by short-covering later.

"It's the way to make money from a future market which was in a downwards trend and lacked the energy to go any higher, like rubber," a Tokyo-based trader said.