Mumbai: Edible oil imports in India can fall to their lowest in six years, contracted for the second year in a row due to the plague and demand for Coronavirus which was extorted by recording prices, a senior industry official said on Wednesday.
Lower purchases by the largest vegetable oil importer in the world can weigh on the benchmark of Malaysian palm oil, Soyoil as and the price of sunflower oil.
Indian consumption, which has grown every year before the Coronavirus outbreak reaches last year, falls to 21 million tons in the marketing year which ended October 31, from 22.5 million a year ago, said a trading body official.
Requests cannot recover in the marketing year of 2020/21 at this time because it records high prices, said BV Mehta, Executive Director of the Extractors of India Solvent Association (Sea).
Edible oil imports in India in 20/21 can decrease to 13.1 million tons, the lowest in six years, from last year’s figure of 13.2 million, added Mehta.
“India is a very sensitive price and high prices today tend to reduce further demand,” he told an online conference.
Imports meet nearly two-thirds of Indian demand, he said, with palm oil coming mainly from top Indonesian and Malaysian producers, while other oils, such as soybeans and sunflowers, come from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia.
But this palm oil imports can increase by 8% in the year to 7.8 million tons, he said, when India allows imported fine palm oil and cut import taxes to reduce domestic prices.
Domestic prices almost doubled last year.
The purchase of oil that can be eaten abroad India is also limited by higher domestic production, which rose 1 million tons to 9 million in the current marketing year, after soybeans and output peanuts rose, said Mehta.