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India’s vegetable oil import surged 27 per cent in March due to lesser availability from domestic sources. According to the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA)’s data, India's vegetable oil import was 1.06 million tonnes in March, compared with 0.84 million tonnes a year ago.
Between November and March, the first five months of the current oil year, vegetable oil imports jumped 24 per cent.
“Zero export duty on palm products by Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s two large producers, coupled with reduced demand of crude palm oil for biodiesel, pushed export of palm products to India, to reduce burgeoning stock held by the exporting countries,” said B V Mehta, executive director, SEA.
“Also, due to high prices of soybean and lesser realisation for oil and soybean meal in the export market resulted in lower crushing and lesser oil availability in the domestic market, resulting in to higher import,” he added.
