India reduced imports of vegetable oils by 17% in September

India in September reduced compared to August imports of palm oil by 26% to a 3-month low of 834,797 thousand tons due to rising stocks in processors. This may lead to an increase in stocks in major producing countries – Malaysia and Indonesia, which will increase pressure on prices.

According to the Indian Association of solvent producers (SEA), imports of vegetable oils in September decreased by 17% from a record August 1.87 million tons to 1.55 million tons, in particular sunflower – by 17.8% to 300,732 thousand tons, although imports of soybean oil increased by 0.1% to 358,557 thousand tons.

“In July and August, India imported more oil than it needs, although retail demand in the country remains weak. Now the processors are trying to sell the previously imported oil,” – said the trader from Mumbai, who sells edible oil.

In recent months, India has been the main buyer of surplus oil due to the reduction of import duties on crude palm oil, crude soybean oil and crude sunflower oil to 5.5%. If last year, as of September 1, domestic vegetable oil stocks amounted to 2.4 million tons, this year they reached 3.7 million tons, SEA reports.

In October, the country may further reduce the import of vegetable oils due to low retail demand and against the background of the beginning of its own processing of soybeans of the new harvest.

India buys palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and soybean and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia.

The decline in demand from the world’s largest importer immediately led to a drop in prices for all vegetable oils, which will continue for at least 2 months amid a seasonal increase in supply of all types of oils.

Tags: sunflower oil, soybean oil, India, palm oil