16/11/2013 (Reuters) - India's vegetable oil imports touched a record high for the year ended Oct. 31, 2013, riding on a surge in palm oil purchases from Southeast Asia.

But the rise in imports was less than expectations as the weakness of the local currency made purchases costlier.

Here are some facts about the Indian vegetable oil sector.

- India overtook China to become the world's top importer of edible oil in calendar 2009 as local supply in China rose.
- India is the world's second-biggest consumer of cooking oil after China.
- India buys mainly palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a small quantity of soyoil from Brazil and Argentina.
- India is the world's top buyer of palm oil.  
- In January 2013, India imported a record 1.2 million tonnes of vegetable oils, the highest in a month since imports were liberalised in 1994. The imports also included 893,313 tonnes of palm oil for the month.
- India allows tax-free imports of crude edible oils, while refined cooking oils attract an import tax of 7.5 percent.
- India's refined palm oil imports hit a record at 373,837 tonnes in May 2013, raising the clamour for increasing import duties to protect local oilseed growers and refiners against cheaper supplies from Indonesia and Malaysia.     - India produces nine oilseed crops in a year over two seasons. The major edible oilseeds are soybean, groundnut,
rapeseed and sunflower.
- Soybean is the main summer-sown crop, while rapeseed, with the highest oil content, is the main winter season crop. - In the 2012/13 crop year, India produced 14.7 million tonnes of soybean and 7.8 million tonnes of rapeseed. Total oilseed output stood at 31 million tonnes, up 4.0 percent from the previous year.
- Despite its No. 1 slot in imports, India's per-capita cooking oil consumption is less than the global average of around 20 kg. Its oilseed yield is also lower than the global average of 1,800-2,000 kg per hectare.