New Delhi: India’s palm oil imports in March plunged to their lowest level in 10 months. As per market experts, higher prices prompted refiners to substitute palm oil with sunflower oil. India is the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils.
Meanwhile, India’s import of sunoil touched the second-highest on record. Higher sunflower oil purchases will help to reduce sunflower oil inventories in the Black Sea region.
Palm oil imports fell about 2.5% in March from the previous month to stand at 485,354 metric tons. This is the lowest since May 2023. Sunflower oil imports in the month surged about 50% to 445,723 tons, the second highest on record. Data released by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) revealed this.
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Crude palm oil (CPO) imports are offered at about $1,040 a metric ton, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF), in India for May delivery, while soyoil and sunflower oil are offered around $1,015 and $975 a ton, respectively.
Soyoil imports in March jumped 26.4% to 218,604 tons from a month earlier, and were far below the monthly average imports of 306,000 tons seen in the last marketing year ended Oct. 31.
The higher sunflower oil and soyoil imports lifted India’s total edible oil imports in March to the highest level in six months at 1.149 million tons, up 18.8% from a month earlier.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
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