Commodity Online
MUMBAI: India’s imports of vegetable oils that rose 80 per cent during October-December, may slump in the first quarter with the supply pipeline being full.

According to the Solvent Extractors Association, vegetable oils import increased to 21.27 lakh tonnes (lt) during October-December against 12.75 lt during the same period a year ago. In December, the shipments rose 35 per cent to 7.45 lt.

Association president B V Mehta said that vegetable oil imports have flooded the Indian domestic market. “Because of this, there is disparity in domestic crushing as imported oils were cheap. Imports were more as traders feared the Centre may re-impose customs duty on vegetable oils anytime.”

He said imports of oils have been in full force and the pipeline is full. “We expect India’s imports of vegetable oils to slowdown during January-March,” he sid.

With domestic crushers suffering from disparity, not a single oilseed crushing unit was operating to capacity. Mehta said that during normal course, crushing will be in full force this time. However, things are different now in view of the imports.

Imports are taking place, despite groundnut prices hovering near the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,100 a quintal and sunflower prices ruling below MSP Rs 2,215.

Contracts for imports were also signed when global prices hit the bottom. With prices recovering, imports, in turn, could slow down. For example, crude palm oil prices slid to $440 a tonne on November 17, resulting in contracts being signed for their imports.

Since then, the prices have recovered to $570 on January 13. Crude palm oil imports were 4.86 lt during December.

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