17/03/2015 (UkrAgroConsult) - Indonesia plans to increase blending of palm oil with diesel this year to cut costs of importing fossil fuel and shore up prices of the world’s most-used vegetable oil. The world’s largest palm oil producer will raise the blending rate to 15 percent this year from 10 percent and subsequently to 20 percent.

The U.S. Agricultural Trade Office in Beijing said it expected China to continue to increase its imports of soybeans through the 2015-16 marketing year. The office preliminarily forecast Chinese imports of soybeans from all sources in 2015-16 at 77.5 million tonnes, up 4.5 million tonnes, or 6%, from the trade office’s forecast for the current year at a record 73 million tonnes and compared with 70.364 million tonnes in 2013-14. The trade office issued its forecasts for Chinese soybean imports in its Peoples Republic of China Oilseeds and Products Annual, which was issued on March 3.

India's palm oil imports fell to 509,948 tonnes in February from 658,670 tonnes in the previous month, its second month in a row, data from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India ( SEA) showed on Friday. Traders had forecast imports between 450,000-520,000 tonnes by the world's biggest palm oil buyer, including 50,000-70,000 tonnes of refined palm oil, for the month.

Malaysia's palm oil product exports to Iran dropped by 42.1 per cent to 447,058 tonnes in 2014, from 635,258 tonnes in 2013, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas. He said overall, exports of Malaysian palm products fell by 36 per cent to 515,231 tonnes last year.