A sharp reduction in India's purchases of palm oil in 2024/25 MY will continue to put pressure on prices of vegetable oils in the near term.

According to preliminary data from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), the import of vegetable oils into India in the 2024/25 marketing year (ended in October 2025) reached 16.3 - 16.4 million tons, which corresponds to the level of the previous season, but palm oil shipments significantly decreased due to an increase in soybean oil shipments. In the 2024/25 marketing year, palm oil imports to India decreased by 20% compared to the previous season, from 9-9.2 million tons to a 5-year low of 7.58 million tons, sunflower oil by 22% from 3.51 to 2.87-2.88 million tons, while soybean oil imports increased by 16% from 4.7 million tons to a record 5.47-5.56 million tons. The main reason for this reduction in shipments was that palm oil traded at a premium relative to other oils for several months, which prompted Indian buyers to switch to cheaper soybean oil, as well as the Indian government's increase in the difference in duties between crude and refined oils (to ...