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The country's vegetable oil imports rose by 21% to 10.47 lakh tonnes in September from the year-ago period, industry body SEA said today.
It said the government should hike import duty on these items to curb cheap imports and protect local oilseed farmers.
The country's vegetable oil imports stood at 8.63 lakh tonnes in the same month of corresponding period.
India meets 60% of its annual vegetable oil demand of 17-18 million tonnes via imports. Palm oils make up 71% of the country's total vegetable oil imports.
"Imports are rising as prices are at historical low since 2008 in the wake of zero duty on palm products announced by Malaysia and Indonesia," Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) Executive Director B V Mehta told PTI.
Rise in palm oil imports has resulted in increased downward pressure on domestic prices of oils and oilseeds during peak kharif harvesting season, SEA said in a statement.
"There is an urgent need to support farmers by increasing import duty on crude vegetable oils from 2.5% to 10% and refined oils from 10% to 25%, only a viable option," the industry body said.
Of total 10.47 lakh tonnes of vegetable oils imported during September 2014, edible oils comprised of 10.18 lakh tonnes and non-edible oils shipments were at 28,853 tonnes, SEA's latest data showed.
Among edible oils, palm oil imports rose to 6,98,471 tonnes in September this year from 6,44,386 tonnes in the year-ago period.
Similarly, sunflower oil imports increased sharply to 1,32,491 tonnes from 48,498 tonnes, while the shipment of soyabean oil jumped to 1,61,016 tonnes from 1,40,971 tonnes in the review period, the data showed.
According to SEA, the overall import of vegetable oils (both edible and non-edible) increased by 9.5% to 10.57 million tonnes during November-September period of 2013-14 oil year that will end this month.
India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia and small quantity of crude soft oils, including soyabean oil, from Latin America and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia.
