With an overall growth of 6% per annum the demand for edible oils in the country is expected to increase from the current level of 12 million tonne to 15.6 million tonne in 2010 and further to 21.3 million tonne by 2015 assuming a per capita consumption increase of 4% and a population growth of 1.8%, said BV Mehta, executive director, The Solvent Extractors? Association of India (SEA) said.
Speaking on the ?India?s vegetable oil markets fundamentals and projections? at the MPOB ? PIPOC conference at Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, Mehta said that India consumes around 12 to 12.5 million tonne annually of various edible oils. Although edible oils are widely consumed, the per capita consumption is around 11 kg a year, considerably lower than in most developed countries.
?Domestic vegetable oil production (7 to 8 million tonne) is not sufficient to meet domestic demand. Oilseeds production for the Current Oil Year (COY) ending October 2007 is estimated at 23.2 million tonne (down 4.7 million tonne from previous year), equivalent to 7.7 million tonne of vegetable oils. Total availability of vegetable oils from domestic and import is estimated at 13.50 million tonne during 2006-07,? Mehta said.
The overall imports of vegetable oils (edible oils, vanaspati and non-edible oils) during the current year are projected at about 5.8 million tonne compared to 5.4 million tonne last year. The share of palm oil is expected to increase to 4.15 million tonne, whereas soft oil such as soy oil is likely to decrease to 1.65 million tonne, he said.
?I expect arrivals during the next three months (August-October) would be 5-6 lakh tonne per month and the total imports would be 4.7 to 4.8 million tonne for the whole year compared to 4.4 million tonne last year (2005-06).
India imports mainly crude oil to utilise its own processing capacity and practically 97-98% import is in crude form,? he said. From November 2006 to July, 2007 period, India has imported 3.30 million tonne of edible oils consisting of 2.23 million tonne of palm products and 1.07 million tonne of soft oils. The import volume has increased by 8% over the same period of previous year.