Kakinada emerges as edible oil hub

Refines oil worth Rs 15,000 cr every year

Kakinada, a pulsating business city in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, has emerged as a hub for import of edible oil, with companies importing nearly 13 lakh tonnes of edible oil worth Rs 15,000 crore a year.

Crude edible oil including sunflower and soybean from Malaysia, Indonesia and South America reach here by container cargo ships. They are refined and then moved to the domestic market as well as other states in the country.

"On an average, about 3,500 tonnes of oil is refined per day at the 10 refineries located at Vokalpudi industrial zone here. The oil refineries here refine nearly 13 lakh tonnes of oil annually and the estimated business turnover is Rs 15,000 crore," V R Vijayaraghava, District Industries Centre general manager, told Business Standard.

Dayanandam, factory manager of Nikhil Refineries Limited, said his refinery alone refines 400 tonnes of crude oil imported from Malaysia and Indonesia every day. "We import and refine as much as 1.5 lakh tonnes of crude oil annually," he said. Some refineries also produce 'vanaspati' as a byproduct, he added.

According to Vijayaraghava, Ruchi Infrastructure Limited is the largest importer of edible oil, with a refining capacity of 1,200 tonnes of oil per day, while Nikhil Refineries, Acalmar Oils, Goutami Liquid Storage and Kedia Enterprises refine about 400 tonnes of oil per day.

Other companies like Shalimar and Sharada refine about 100 tonnes of oils whereas Palm-Tech India Limited is engaged in refining crude palm oil imported from Singapore.