The Solvent Extractors? Association of India (SEA), a premier association of vegetable oil industry and trade, is against the usage of edible vegetable oils for the production of bio-fuel in the country.
The price of soybean oil worldwide has increased by 60%, palm oil by over 80%, rapeseed oil by 50% and sunflower oil by 130% in the last one year, due to increase in the production of bio-diesel.
?The high price of vegetable oils may have direct impact on consumption, particularly on the poor section of the society who are very much sensitive to price. They will be forced to reduce the consumption of edible oils in their daily diet, leading to malnutrition and social unrest,? Ashok Sethia, president, SEA, said.
The world uses about 4,250 million tonne of crude petroleum oils against which current global vegetable oil production is estimated at 150 million tonne i.e. only 3.5% of the total mineral oil market.
?Even if the entire quantity of vegetable oils (150 million tonne) available in the world is converted into bio-fuel, it will make only 3% fossil oil, but withdrawal of 5-10% of vegetable oils (10 million tonne) for non-food usage makes a great difference and has serious impact on the price and availability,? Sethia said.
Currently, about 9 million tonne of bio-diesel is being produced globally against the capacity of about 23.4 million tonne and many more plants are in the pipeline throughout the world to produce bio-diesel in the next 1 to 2 years, he said.