PALMOILMAGAZINE, MUMBAI – Vegetable oil imports in India dropped by a quarter in August 2024 compared to the previous period. This decline was attributed to high stock levels and negative profit margins, prompting factories to reduce their purchases of tropical oils, according to five traders on Tuesday.
As the world’s largest vegetable oil importer, India’s reduced purchases could lead to higher palm oil stockpiles in major producing countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, potentially putting downward pressure on benchmark prices in global markets.
Traders estimated that India’s palm oil imports fell by 27% in August, totaling 791,000 metric tons, compared to July.
“In July, imports exceeded local demand, so factories have reduced their vegetable oil imports this month,” said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil trading company, as quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com from Hellenicshippingnews on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
Also Read: India’s Palm Oil Imports in June Up 3%: Highest in Six Months
He also mentioned, the increasing palm oil price recently, made it equal to soyoil price and there was no incentive to purchase palm oil.
In general, palm oil was cheaper than other vegetable oil, such as, soyoil but in the September delivery, palm oil was at the same price with other vegetable oils.
Rajesh Patel, the managing parter in vegetable oil trader and broker – GGN Research, said that the distillation margin of palm oil was in negative zone in August. This forced the buyers to minimize their purchase.
On the other hand, soyoil imports got increased 16% in India to be 456.000 metric tons – the highest numbers for more than two years, as the traders mentioned.
rapeseed oil in the country got increased more than 8% in the past month and some distillation started mixing rapeseed oil with soyoil for being relatively cheap, a vegetable oil trader from Jaipur, said.
Sunflower oil imports got decreased 21% in August to be 288.000 metric tons.
The decreasing palm oil and sunflower oil imports made vegetable oil imports in India get decreased 17% to be 1,53 million tons, as the traders estimated.
To protect the smallholders that got impacts from the cheaper seed oils, India is still considering to escalate vegetable oil import taxes, as two government’s officials mentioned.
India imported palm oil namely from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while soyoil and sunflower oil imports were from Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine.
Industrial association, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) would be releasing the official data about vegetable oil imports in August by the midst of September 2024. (P2)
