Cooking Oil Imports by India Advance for First Time This Year on Festivals.

Vegetable oil imports by India, the biggest consumer after China, in July gained for the first time this year as demand climbed before religious festivals.

Purchases advanced 34 percent to 800,644 metric tons from 596,024 tons a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said today in an e-mail. Incoming cargoes of crude palm oil jumped 23 percent to 410,604 tons, the group said.

Overseas purchases in the year ending Oct. 31 may be less than 9.1 million tons forecast by the group in March because of an increase in local supplies, B.V. Mehta, executive director at the association, said by phone. Reduced imports may cool gains in palm oil prices that touched a 16-month high in Kuala Lumpur today on concern adverse weather in Asia may lower output.

“Imports will be more or less the same as last year’s” 8.66 million tons, he said. “An increase in imports forecast earlier may not materialize. Local crushing has picked up on expectations of a good crop following good rainfall.”

The peak season for India’s edible oils demand starts with the Ramadan this month and ends with Diwali in early November.

Palm oil for delivery in November fell 0.2 percent to 2,686 ringgit ($845) a metric ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange at 5:36 p.m. local time. Earlier, the price advanced as much as 1.5 percent. The commodity rose 2.1 percent last week to a fifth straight week of gains.

India’s vegetable oil imports in the November-July period were 6.38 million tons, little changed from 6.42 million tons a year earlier, the association said. Purchases may be 2.1 million to 2.2 million tons in the next three months, Mehta said.

Stockpiles were at 1.21 million tons on Aug. 1 from 1.11 million on July 1, the group said.

Soybean oil imports surged to 220,070 tons last month, from 66,212 tons a year earlier, as the premium of the vegetable oil over palm oil narrowed to $70 to $80 a ton, the association said.

Palm oil makes up almost 80 percent of India’s purchases.

Source : bloomberg.com