Due to comfortable stocks positions with the processor, the country?s vegetable oils import fell by 1% to 6.32 lakh tonne in March, an industry body on Tuesday said.
The country had imported 6.41 lakh tonne of vegetable oil comprising of edible and non-edible oil in March 2009.
However, the import of edible oils increased to 6.12 lakh tonne in March 2010 from 6.09 lakh tonne in March 2009, while that of non-edible oil fell to 20,575 tonne from 31,588 tonne, the Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said in a statement. ?The import during March 2010 is lower due to higher imports during the first quarter of the (oil) year and larger stocks at ports and in pipe lines,? B V Mehta, Executive Director, SEA said.
However, the overall import of vegetable oils rose 4.3% to 37.47 lakh tonne during November 2009 to March 2010 compared to 35.92 lakh tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year.
?Although, the import has slowed down in recent months, the overall import has increased during November 2009 to March 2010 due to lower crushing,? Mehta said. He also said strengthening of the rupee against the US dollar coupled with zero import duty on crude vegetable oils and marginal duty on refined vegetable oils supported import during crushing sea son.
Have enough seeds for kharif season: IARI
The government on Tuesday said there would be no scarcity of seeds during forthcoming kharif season as it has enough stocks. ?We have enough seeds with us to accommodate the requirement of the coming kharif crop season, there won?t be any problem we are fully prepared for the kharif season,? HS Gupta, director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute said on Tuesday. According to estimate, the country requires 254 lakh quintal seeds annually.