Cooking oil prices moved up in Feb, further spike expected

Prices of most cooking oils rose in February in India amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with branded sunflower, vanaspati, mustard, and groundnut oil prices witnessing month-on-month increase, according to data from retail intelligence platform Bizom.

Ukraine and Russia are among the key suppliers sunflower oil, fulfilling a significant chunk of global demand for the edible oil.

India consumes an estimated 2.5-3 million tonnes of sunflower oil per annum. Nearly 70% of this comes from Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia together accounted for nearly 13% of all of India’s edible oil imports in 2021, supplying 1.6 million tonnes.

In India, prices of packaged sunflower oil rose 4% sequentially in February, while those mustard oil moved up 8.7%. Soybean oil prices fell a marginal 0.4%, while vanaspati rose 2.7%. Groundnut oil was up 1%. Palm oil, that is widely consumed in Indian households, saw prices drop 12.9% after a period of high prices. Compared to February 2020 though, palm oil prices are still up 22.9%.

Bizom tracks sales of packaged consumer goods across 7.5 million retail outlets in India.

Edible oil prices in India had seen some correction between the September and December quarter. In January, Bizom data indicated a 10-30% easing of prices from the peak of the last two years.

However, the conflict in Ukraine late February put fresh pressure pressure on essential commodities, including cooking oil.

Akshay D’Souza, chief marketing officer at Bizom, said while edible oil prices had seen some stability over the last two quarters driven by curbs imposed by the government, the Russia-Ukraine war led to the reversal of that trend.

mint

Tags: edible oil, mustard, vanaspati, groundnut oil, sunflower, prices, India, cooking oil