India seen coping with Indonesia curbs on palm oil exports
13/02/2023 (Reuters), Mumbai - Indonesia's plans to restrict palm oil exports are unlikely to create a shortage in top consuming market India, where stocks have risen to a record high following aggressive imports in the past three months, industry officials said.
That's a sharp contrast with last year when a sudden change in export policies by Jakarta forced India to increase purchases from Malaysia, which at the time was selling palm oil at record high prices.
Last week, Indonesia said it will suspend some palm oil export permits to secure domestic supply as cooking oil prices rise ahead of upcoming Islamic festival Ramadan.
India's edible oil imports in the first quarter of the 2022/23 marketing year - which started on Nov. 1 - rose 25% from a year ago to around 4.5 million tonnes, dealers said.
The imports have lifted stocks to a record 3.6 million tonnes as of Feb. 1 compared to 1.83 million tonnes a year ago, they estimated.