India increased vegetable oil imports by 40% in November, especially soybean and sunflower oil

Published 2024년 12월 13일

Tridge summary

In November 2024, India faced a surge in palm oil prices, leading to a significant increase in the imports of cheaper vegetable oils such as soybean and sunflower oil. Imported vegetable oil volumes rose by 12% from October to a record 1.628 million tons, marking a 40% increase from November 2023. This change has resulted in a drop in domestic oilseed prices, posing challenges for local processors due to the lower global competitiveness of Indian soybean meal. The SEA Association is calling on the government to reinstate futures trading to support farmers and the market. Consequently, the total vegetable oil stocks in ports and warehouses as of December 1 reached 2.569 million tons, an increase of 161 thousand tons from November 1, 2024.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

After palm oil became the most expensive on the market, India sharply increased purchases of much cheaper soybean and sunflower oil. According to the SEA Association, in November 2024 (the first month of the 2024/25 season), vegetable oil imports increased by 12% compared to October from 1.459 million tons to a record 1.628 million tons, which is 40% higher than the figure for November 2023 (1.161 million tons). Thus, imports of RBD palm olein increased compared to November last year from 171,069 to 284,537 thousand tons, crude sunflower oil - from 128,707 to 340,66 thousand tons, soybean oil - from 149,894 to 407,648 thousand tons. Indian vegetable oil importers have been quick to adapt to the change in global prices and have increased imports of Argentine soybean oil due to its strong competitiveness. The excessive soybean imports have led to a decline in domestic oilseed prices to Rs 4,250-4,300/quintile, compared to the minimum retail price of Rs 4,892/quintile, making it ...

Source: Graintrade