NEW DELHI, Feb 17 Asia Pulse - With a bumper oilseeds crop of around235,00,000 tonnes in the offing, India's edible oil imports have reportedan 8 per cent fall to 9,41,000 tonnes in November-October period from8,69,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

But with the kharif stocks depleting and rabi arrivals yet to take place,imports in January this year rose to 3,54,000 tonnes from 2,94,000 tonnes,a rise of 20.4 per cent, primarily due to the inflow of crude palm oil(CPO).

According to the latest data furnished by the Solvent ExtractorsAssociation, crude palm oil (CPO) imports have increased to 4,33,000tonnes from 3,67,000 tonnes during the frist quarter of the edible oilseason.

In January, the CPO imports increased to 1,61,000 tonnes from 95,709tonnes in the same month last year.

However, with no international price parity, imports of degummed soyabeanoil have been falling and were only 76,000 tonnes during the quarteragainst 1,67,000 tonnes last year.

Crude Olein imports have also fallen, to 1,23,000 tonnes from 3,74,000tonnes. But that has been to quite an extent been made up by the rise inimports of RBD Palmolein, mainly because of favourable customs duty to1,97,000 tonnes from only 6,403 tonnes last year.

As a result the share of refined oil in overall imports has risen to 23per cent from only one 1 per cent last year.

With falling soya oil imports, the share of palm oils in overall importshas risen to 88 per cent from 81 per cent in 2002-03. India is the world'slargest importer of edible oils.