12/05/2012 (Financial Express) - India’s vegetable oil imports jumped by 95% to 7.27 lakh tonnes in April 2012 against 4.35 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, according to industry data released on Friday.

The share of refined Palm oil is likely to increase as the current Indonesian inverted duty structure encourages larger export of refined oils over crude oil, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said. The quantity of edible oils imported in April this year stood at 8.97 lakh tonnes, while that of non-edible oils was 27,930 tonnes in the same period.

In November-April period of the current oil year, import of vegetable oils — edible oil and non-edible oils — rose by 31% to 47.14 lakh tonnes compared with 36.03 lakh tonnes in the same period of the 2010-11 oil year (November-October). In the first six months of 2011-12 oil year, import of edible oils rose to 46.03 lakh tonnes from 34.82 lakh tonnes, whereas that of non-edible oils fell to 1.11 lakh tonnes from 1.20 lakh tonnes in the same period, SEA said in a statement.

The import of RBD palmolein rose by 89% at 9.19 lakh tonnes in the November-April period of the current oil year, compared with 4.87 lakh tonnes in the same period of last oil year.

Share of refined oil rose to 20%, while crude oil has decreased to 80% and reported at 36.83 lakh tonnes compared with 29.95 lakh tonnes during corresponding period of previous year, SEA said.

“Share of RBD Palmolein is likely to increase as current Indonesian inverted duty structure encourages larger export of refined oils over crude oil and also the gap between CPO and RBD Palmolein has further reduced to just $20 which was $60 a year back,” it said.

India imports about 50% of domestic requirement of vegetable oil. The country imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, while soyabean oil is imported from Brazil and Argentina. Over 8.67 million tonnes of vegetable oils were imported in 2010-11 oil year.