NEW DELHI, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- With the festive season in India fastapproaching, the demand for edible oil has started to increase.

However, refined palm olein from Malaysia, which generally enjoysexcellent consumer demand during the season, has been losing its marketshare, according to a Mumbai-datelined report in the Hindu Business Line,a financial daily.

Imports by India during July was 5.5 tonnes and August is likely toregister an even larger quantity, going by trends in the first weekitself, it added.

A quick survey of edible oil arrivals during the week showed that soyabeanoil will have a large share (75,000 tonnes), followed by crude palm oil(about 65,000 tonnes), with refined palmolein emerging third (42,000tonnes).

Sunflower oil import may be small, at about 6,000 tonnes.

-- BERNAMA