India vegetable oils import fell in September month-on-month by 20.19% to 1.044 million tons due to higher prices and as refiners work through to clear the backlog of high imports from the previous 2 months when inbound shipment notched 11 months high in July—India Solvent Extractors Association data showed. Indian vegetable oil imports are trending 13.50% lower this oil year—October 2019 to September 2020 at 11.950 million tons compared to the same time last year mainly due to demand loss from the HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and catering) segment following the lockdown measures curbing social and economic activities. September is the second last month before the end of the oil year in October.
Import of all vegetable oils fell in September with palm declining by 12.30%, soybean oil down by 19.89%, sunflower oil contracting by 57.87% and rapeseed oil lower by 17.15%. RBD palm olein made a rare increase to 12,150 tons from zero imports in the previous 2 months but is not expected to continue into the subsequent months due to the retention of high import tariffs and restriction on imports. CPO imports fell for the second month erasing 15.04% from August to 615,433 tons. CPO imports from Malaysia stood at 2.013 million tons versus 3.799 million from Indonesia and 66,167 tons from Thailand in the 11 months of the oil year.
Edible oil stocks improved with year-on-year deficit continuing to decrease for fifth straight month after contracting by 200,000 tons or 11.10% to the same time last year. The deficit was 1.440 million tons just 6 months ago.
Full oil year import is likely to see 13.50-13.60 million tons versus 15.55 million tons in 2018-2019 or down 13.18—12.54%.