India’s November palm oil imports rise as lower prices spur buying

India’s palm oil imports edged up in November as refiners took advantage of lower prices, boosting purchases of the tropical oil while reducing imports of the costlier soyoil and sunflower oil, a leading industry body said on Monday. Higher palm oil imports by India, the world’s largest buyer of vegetable oils, could help top producers Indonesia and Malaysia cut stocks and support benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures, while putting pressure on U.S. soyoil futures. Palm oil imports in November rose about 5% from October to 632,341 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said. Imports of soyoil dropped more than 18% to 370,661 tons and sunflower oil imports fell 45% to a two-year low of 142,953 tons, the industry body said. India also imported 5,000 tons of canola oil from the United Arab Emirates in the month, it added. Lower imports of soyoil and sunflower oil cut India’s total imports of edible oils in November by 13.3% from a month earlier to a ...