6/1/06 (India Online)  -  The Government on Monda announced that it had marginally slashed the base import prices of crude palm and soybean oils. India is one of the world's leading edible oil importers and imports 150,000-200,000 tons of crude palm oil every month.The base import price of crude palm oil,

 imported mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia, has been reduced to US$415 per ton from US$417. The base price of crude soybean oil had been cut to US$492 a ton from US$497.

The Government also reduced the prices of RBD (refined, bleached and deodorised) palm oil to US$430 per ton from US$432 and others palm oil to US$423 a ton from US$425.

Meanwhile, the Government raised base import price of crude palmolein to US$437 a ton from to US$418, RBD palmolein to US$440 per ton from US$421 and other palmolein to US$439 per ton from $420, in line with global prices.

Of the approximately 11mn tons of edible oil India consumes a year, it buys nearly half in the form of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soft oils from Argentina and Brazil. Palm oil accounts for 60% of India's total edible oil imports while soybean oil makes for the rest.