India’s Sunflower Oil Imports Drop to 6-Month Low

India’s soybean oil imports rose 24% to 352,000 tonnes in March, while sunflower oil imports fell 15.5% to 193,000 tonnes, the lowest in six months.

Palm oil imports rose 13.2% to 423,000 tonnes month-on-month in March, but remained below normal levels for the fourth month in a row as its premium over rival soybean oil prompted millers to increase purchases of the latter, The Edge Malaysia reported.

India imported an average of over 750,000 tonnes of palm oil every month during the last marketing year ending October 2024, according to the Oilseed Extractors Association of India (SEA) data scheduled to be released by mid-April.

“Palm oil has been more expensive than soybean oil in the last few months, and that is reducing the underlying demand,” said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at edible oil trader GGN Research.

The increase in palm and soybean oil supplies pushed the country’s total edible oil imports to 968,000 tonnes in March, up 9.3% from the previous month, when imports fell to a four-year low.

Tags: sunflower oil, soybean oil, India, palm oil