Cooking oil imports to rise on lower supplies

Vegetable oil imports by India, the biggest user after China, may accelerate in the next three to four months as domestic supplies slow, a processors? group said. Purchases in May climbed 19% to 6,64,133 tonne from a year earlier, the first gain in seven months, the Solvent Extractors? Association of India said in a statement. Imports in the seven months ended May 31 declined 12 % to 4.27 million tonne from a year earlier, it said.

?In the next three to four months, imports will rise as crushing of around 70 % of the oilseed crop in India has been completed,? BV Mehta, executive director of the processors? group, said in a phone interview from Mumbai.

A rebound in Indian imports may help reduce palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia, the second-biggest producer, and bolster the 37% rally in the benchmark futures price in Kuala Lumpur over the past year. Malaysia?s output expanded 13.7% to 1.74 million tonne in May from April, the highest level in 19 months, the nation?s palm oil board said on June 10.

August-delivery palm oil gained as much as 1% to 3,285 ringgit ($1,084) a ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, and traded at 3,276 ringgit at 1:55 pm in Mumbai.

?India?s vegetable oil imports in the year through October may drop about 5,00,000 tonne, or 5.4%, from 9.2 million tonne a year earlier after supplies increased from a bigger domestic oilseed harvest,? processors group?s Mehta said.

Oilseed output may jump 21% to 30.3 million tonne in the year ending June, the farm ministry said on April 6.Crude and refined palm oil imports fell 8.5% to 3.23 million tonne in the seven months ended May 31, while the so- called soft oils including soybean and sunflower oils slumped 19% to 8,86,036 during the same period.

Stockpiles of cooking oils including those at ports totaled 1.35 million tonne on June 1, up 6% from 1.27 million tonne on May 1, the group said.

India meets more than half its edible oil demand through imports, and buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soybean oil from Brazil and Argentina.

India imported 6,64,133 tonne of vegetable oils in May, up 40% from the previous month, trade data released on Wednesday showed.

India imported 6,35,937 tonne of edible oils and 28,196 tonne of non-edible oils in May, the Solvent Extractors? Association of India data showed.