Mumbai, January 17, 2005 - India's soy oil imports are set to grow sharplythis year due to lower global prices, but edible oil imports by theworld's largest buyer should be below earlier estimates due to a goodsummer oilseeds crop, a top trade official said on Monday.

"We are slashing our estimates of oil imports by 500,000 tonne because themustard crop is shaping very well," chairman of Central Organisation ofOil Industry and Trade, Sandeep Bajoria told Reuters in an interview.

India is expected to buy only 4.5 million tonne of vegetable oil this yearending in October, against earlier estimates of five million tonne,Bajoria said on the sidelines of an industry meeting.

India, which imports some 40 per cent of its annual needs of 11 milliontonne of edible oil, is the world's fourth-largest vegetable oil producer.It imported 4.4 million tonne of edible oil in the 2003-04(November-October) oil year.

Edible oil imports were earlier estimated to grow strongly this year dueto a poor winter crop after erratic monsoon rains. India's winter oilseedoutput, grown between June and October, fell 5.8 per cent from a yearearlier to 13.1 million tonne.

The June-September monsoon season usually impacts both winter and summercrops. The rainfall in 2004 was 13 per cent below normal, but rains at theend of the season in September gave the soil more moisture for summersowings.

Bajoria said this year's volume of soft oil, mainly soy oil, was expectedto grow to about 1.5 million tonne from about 900,000 tonne last year.Palm oil imports were estimated at three million tonne, down from 3.4million last year.