)
Vegetable oil imports in the month of May saw a rise of 13% compared to the same period last year at 1 million tonnes compared to 917, 964 tonnes last year on the back of lower soybean crushing in the country as the availability of soybean is on the lower side this year, according to data released by Solvent Extractors' Association of India.
However, since the start of the current oil year (November- May) vegetable oil imports have been stagnant at 6.1 million tonnes.
Import of non edible oil in May was at it's lowest level and was down by 38% to 11,546 tonnes.
Palm oil imports were also down during the current oil year to 4.3 million tonnes. However, the import of soft oil during the year has almost doubled to 1.7 million tonnes.
Indian refiners prefer to import soft oils over CPO which has caused imports of soft oil to double.
