“The total imports of edible oils stood at 15.96 million tonnes as against 16.47 milion tonnes imported last year. India needs annually about an additional 1.0 million tons (10.0 lakh tons) of edible oils to meet the growing population and increase in per capita consumption,” said SEA in a release.
During the last five years, the import of cooking oils has increased from 13.2 million tonnes in 2019-20 to 16 lakh tons in 2023-24.
The increase in import of crude palmolein has been the sharpest, jumping from 4.2 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 to 19.3 lakh tonnes in 2023-24.
India needs about 2.1 million tonnes of edible oils per month. The total stock of oil as on November 1 is down by 1.87%.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the primary suppliers of RBD Palmolein and Crude Palm Oil (CPO) to India. “During the year, international price firmed up due to various reasons which reflected in rise in the domestic prices and also reduction in import,” said SEA.“With normal monsoon, India is expected to harvest 12.5 million tonens of soyabean and 9.5 million tonnes of groundnut in shell in the kharif season, while the mustard production is expected to be 12.5 million tonnes,” said SEA.
Thanks to the bumper production of oilseeds in India, SEA expects the import of cooking oils to reduce by 10 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.
In 2023-24, the average production of oilseeds is estimated to be about 38 million tonnes, up from 34.2 million tonnes of previous year, apart from the 11 million tonnes production of cotton seeds and half a million tonnes of copra (coconut).