Palm Oil share in Indian edible oils import has increased

Mumbai, Sep 16 (UNI) The share of Palm oil in the Indian import of edible oils has shown a significant increase, according to latest statistics released by the Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) of India today.

SEA Executive Managing Director Mr B V Mehta said, ''Overall edible oils imports to India rose to 5,69,538 tonnes in August 2008, as against 4,69,234 tonnes in August 2007, while the imports in the first 10 months of the oil year spurt from 37,67,003 tonnes to 41,98,550 tonnes.'' Another feature revealed in the data is that crude palm oil imports have raced away to 32,57,586 tonnes in the oil year so far, gaining by 37 per cent over the same period last year. In terms of the total quantity imported as well, the share of the crude palm oil has spurt from 63 per cent last year to a whopping 77.50 per cent this year.

The share of refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil has also spurt from a mere 0.02 per cent to almost one per cent this year.

Palm oil has been in a great demand in the domestic market as oil refineries have eyed more than 30 per cent in the commodity since it hit an all time high in June this year.

Small and medium-sized edible oil players have decided to set up refineries at ports to cut down on the cost of logistics, while larger firms already have their refinery units at the ports, and are now considering expanding their fractionation (process by which the refined palm oil is further split to get liquid olein and solid portion called stearin used in vanaspati and soaps) capacities to improve their margins.

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