25/08/2007 (Daily Times Pakistan), KARACHI - Pakistan’s demand for vegetable oils is expected to surge by as much as 10 percent in the new oil year but rising global prices may curb the size of imports.

The demand for oils in the oil year beginning from October in South Asia could grow by 10 percent, while Pakistan may witness a 5-10 percent jump.

Senior member of Pakistan Vegetable Manufacturers Association (PVMA), Nasir Ibrahim said on Thursday. “We are currently paying around Rs 1,125 a tonne, which is more than the previous week on imports of palm olein on rising international prices of the product” he said.

He said Pakistan’s edible oil purchases could rise to 1.9 million tonnes in 2007, from 1.6 million tonnes a year ago. High prices of oils will definitely affect the demand, a 25-30 percent price increase over the last year has led to a 5 percent fall in the demand for imported oils,” he added. Palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange hit a historic high of 2,764 ringgit or $799 a tonne in early June and have dropped 13 percent since then.

He said but they are still 26 percent up this year and well within the sight of June’s figure. The rise is helped by the soaring demand for palm oil.

The import demand in Asia has been high in the recent months, as buyers in the Middle East, Pakistan and India increased imports in the holy month of Ramadan, Mr Ibrahim said.

Pakistan imported around $892 million worth of palm oil during July-June 2007 as against $717 million in the same period last year. He said the import would further increase around 10-15 percent this year despite higher international price of the commodity and lower than expected yield of cottonseed in the country.

Pakistan imported around 1.98 million tonnes of edible oil from Malaysia, which included 35 percent of crude oil in 2006.

He said oil imports would further increase as the local market was up and would remain bullish so we can expect importers to cash on the situation and import a higher quantity in the coming months.

He said the importer has to pay 45 percent duty on import value besides paying 50 percent import landing tax to the government. The local market is up and would remain bullish so we can expect importers to cash on the situation and import a higher quantity in the coming months.