11/09/2012 (Reuters) - India's refined palm oil imports are expected to have fallen in August as the world's top vegetable oil buyer raised its duty on purchases to cut cheap supplies from Indonesia, a Reuters survey showed, reflecting the third monthly fall in a row.

Traders forecast refined palm oil imports in August to be between 60,000 and 125,000 tonnes, with the average at 89,166 tonnes, down 20.8 percent from July.

Imports of the refined palm variant have been in decline since June amid expectations that India would make imports costlier to protect processors and might raise the levy before purchased cargoes arrived.

The duty finally took effect from Aug. 1.

India's refined palm oil imports have surged overall by about 80 percent to 1.3 million tonnes in the first nine months of the current year from November 2011 after Indonesia, the world's No. 1 palm oil producer, changed taxes in October 2011 to make the product cheaper and support its own refining industry.

Traders also said they expected refined palmolein imports to hover around this figure, close to last year's average of 90,000 to 100,000 tonnes, until the end of the current year in October, in response to the protective step by the Indian government.

Total palm oil imports rose 17.2 percent to 716,750 tonnes as prices of the crude variant eased about 6 percent in the first half of last month because of growing stocks in Malaysia, the world's No. 2 producer, according to the average of a survey of eight traders.

Imported refined palm oil was quoted at about $990 per tonne on a cost and freight basis on India's west coast, while imported crude palm oil was quoted at around $960 per tonne.

Imports of soft oils such as soy and sunflower fell in August as demand for fried foods shrank during the summer.

Soyoil imports are seen down 38.7 percent from July to 96,125 tonnes, while monthly sunflower oil imports also fell by 9.2 percent to 72,750 tonnes in August, the survey showed.

"High soyoil prices due to drought in the U.S.'s soybean areas supported the lower monthly imports," said K.K. Goyel, a trader based in Delhi.

Total August vegetable oil imports, including small amounts of non-edible oils, are likely to have risen by 5.3 percent to 916,125 tonnes from July.

The higher imports pushed up end-August stocks at Indian ports by 9.3 percent to 820,00 tonnes, it showed.

Indian buyers have started building up stocks for the September-November festival season, taking advantage of low crude palm oil prices.

The benchmark November crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia had edged down 0.3 percent to 2,918 ringgit ($941) per tonne by midday, extending losses to a fifth straight session.

"Imports could be 850,000-900,000 tonnes in September," said R.K. Singhal, a Delhi-based analyst.

About 80 percent of India's total cooking oil imports are palm oils, while the rest are soft oils.

India mainly buys palm oils from Indonesia and Malaysia, and small quantities of soyoil from Argentina and Brazil. About half of India's 15 million to 16 million tonnes of annual demand is met through imports.

The Solvent Extractors' Association of India, a leading trade body, is expected to release August import data this week.