India April palm oil imports rise to 3-month high

India’s palm oil imports rose to their highest level in three months in April as lower prices lured buyers, while rival sunoil imports slipped, a leading trade body said on Tuesday.

Palm oil imports rose 40.9% in April from the previous month to stand at 684,094 metric tons, the highest since January, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.

Higher palm oil purchases by India, the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils, could support the benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures FCPOc3. The contract hit a three-month low on May 10.

Crude palm oil’s (CPO) imports are offered at about $920 a metric ton, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF), in India for June delivery, while soyoil and sunflower oil are offered around $920 and $945 a ton, respectively, dealers told Reuters earlier this month.

Sunflower oil imports fell 47.3% to 234,801 tons while imports of soyoil rose 76.4% to 385,514 tons.

Higher imports of palm oil and soyoil lifted India’s total edible oil imports by 13% to 1.3 million tons, as per the data.

India purchases palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.

Tags: vegetable oils, prices, India, soyoil, palm oil, purchases, imports, sunoil, futures