MUMBAI (Commodity Online) : Mumbai based Solvent Extractors’ Association of India on Thursday said India’s vegetable oil imports is likely to increase this season as lack of rain threatens to damage oilseed crops in the country.
In a statement issued here the Association said, purchases in the year ending Oct 31 may jump 27% to 8 million metric tons and imports in the nine months to July 31 jumped 55% to 6.42 million tons.
Increased imports by the South Asian country may sustain a 45% rally in global palm oil prices this year. The nation relies on overseas purchases to meet more than half its cooking oil needs, with palm oil accounting for 80% of the total.
The statement said, “The erratic monsoon and likely lower oilseeds crop will further push up the imports in September and October”.
“Production of crops will suffer a major setback this year as the dryness has partly prevented plantings and will also curb the yield potential massively.”
The India Meteorological Department Aug 10 cut its monsoon forecast for a second time this season, saying showers in June-September period will be 13% below normal, compared with a 7% deficit estimated in June.
A quarter of India’s 626 districts have declared drought, causing acreages of crops such as rice to shrink from year earlier levels.
Area under oilseeds including peanuts and soybeans dropped to 3.75 million hectares as of Aug 6 from 4.55 million hectares a year ago, the farm ministry said.
Oilseeds production will be depend on rains in August and September, the group said.
Vegetable oil imports in July, including cooking oils, were 596,024 tons, 5% more than a year ago. Imports included 66,290 tons of sunflower oil, the group said.
Crude palm oil purchases in the nine months ended July 31 rose 32% to 3.83 million tons, while soybean oil imports gained 73% to 726,716 tons.
