15/01/2008 (The Economic Times), New Delhi - India’s vegetable oil imports dipped by 25% during December 2007, on better crushing and domestic availability of the commodity, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said on Tuesday.

It said the import of RBD palmolein and crude palm oil slipped by 31.27% to 12,019 tonne and 18.38% to 2.53 lakh tonne during December, compared to the corresponding period a year ago.

However, crude palmolein imports increased impressively by 67% to 3,340 tonne, while soyabean oil increased marginally to 7,500 tonne, it said. The total imports of vegetable oil during the first two months of the edible oil year 2007-08 (edible oil year runs from November of one year to October of the next year), stood at 7.42 lakh tonne, down by 1.22% compared to the same period a year ago, SEA said in a statement.

Total edible oil imports during these two months stood at 6.24 lakh tonne while non-edible oils were at 1.09 lakh tonne, it added. India annually consumes about 10 million tonne of edible oils, with imports contributing half of that. It buys palm oil from Malaysia and Argentina and soyaoil from Brazil and Argentina.