ISLAMABAD (April 08 2003) : The Ministry of Agriculture plans to increasethe import of the edible oil this year as the demand for the products isgrowing, an official said.

The government may import 5 percent more edible oil this year or theimport would be 1.6 million metric tonnes by September because the demandof soyabean oil was increasing, the official added.

On the other hand the official said Pakistan's import of palm oil, whichhas dominated the total import of edible oils in the past years, willdecrease to 1.31 million tonnes, while soyabean oil imports may increaseto 140,000 tonnes.

Pakistan's all of palm oil imports come from Malaysia as Pakistan is thethird biggest buyer of palm oil from Malaysia.

Malaysia is the largest producer of palm oil. Pakistan's import of theedible oils has varied from $700 million to $1 billion depending on theinternational prices.

Imports for the last year were 27 billion rupees ($453 million) for 1.1million tonnes of oilseeds.

The government had last year doubled the import duty to 10 percent onoilseeds to encourage farmers to grow the product locally.

Still, local production may not rise to meet domestic consumption in thenext five to 10 years because the country's farmers traditionally do notgrow the crop, the official said.