15/10/2007 (Business Standard) -The country’s vegetable oil imports jumped 9.5% in the first 11 month of the oil year (November- October) on rising edible oil demand. The overall imports of vegetable oil during the aforementioned period was recorded at 4,802,153 tonne as compared to 4,385,723 tonne in the same period last year, according to data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA).

Total edible oil imports during the period witnessed a growth of 11.47% to 4213724 tonnes in comparison with 3,780,112 tonne in the comparable period last year. Non-edible oil imports, however, dropped from 605,611 tonne to 588,429 tonne, a decline of 2.84%.

Vegetable oil imports during the quarter ended July recorded a 96% upsurge at 1,781,528 tonne as compared to 908,108 in the previous quarter. Of this, edible oil contributed 1590,453 tonne (775,102 tonne) while non-edible oil shared 191,075 tonne (133,006 tonne).

During September, import of edible oil was at 446,721 tonne compared to 363,569 tonne for the corresponding period last year i.e. up by 23%, while non-edible oil import was at 58,818 tonne compared to  68,094 tonne for the corresponding period of last year, i.e. down by 14%.

Crude palm oil import jumped to 2,624,632 tonne from 1,982,418 tonne, due to reduction of import-duty on CPO from 80% to 45% at present. Similarly import of sunflower oil is more than doubled due to reduction of duty from 75% to 40%.

Import of refined oil has reduced  from 115,602 tonne to 102,622 tonne while the crude oil further increased to 3,664,381 tonne from 3,300,941 tonne during November 2006 to August 2007 as compared to corresponding period of last year.

Palm oil products (CPO, RBD palmolein, crude palmolein  and  crude palm kernel oil) import share has further increased to 2,775,803 tonne (66%) from 2,165,548 tonnes (57%), while soft oil import reduced to 1,437,921 tonne (34%) from 1,614,564 tonne (43%) during November 2006 to September 2007 compared to the same period of last year.

Within soft oil, crude soybean oil import reduced to  1,225,010 tonne from 1,480,907 tonne due to disparity compared to CPO, while sunflower oil import increased to 192,795 tonne from 90,843 tonne.

Import of non-edible oil during September 2007 reported at 58,818 tonne compared to 68,094 tonne in September 2006.

The total import of non-edible oil during November 2006 to September 2007 is reported at 588,429 tonne compared to 605,611 tonne of last year.

PFAD import has substantially increased from 160,989 tonne to 237,597 tonne, while CPS import is drastically reduced in last few months. It may be noted that government has imposed 8% CVD on CPS import effective August 2.

According to the fourth advance estimates released by the agriculture ministry in July, oilseeds output in FY07 is estimated at 23.88 million tonne, down 14.65% from the final production estimates of 27.98 million tonne in 2005-06. The government has also reduced customs duty on edible oil imports to boost the domestic availability and keep prices under check.