MUMBAI: India's import of vegetable oils has risen to a new peak and touched nearly 80-lakh tonnes for first 11 months of the current oil year 2008-09.
Considering the arrival of ships lined up during October 09, the total import will cross 86.0-lakh tonnes valued at over Rs 27,000-crore, next to crude petroleum products bill, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) President, Mr Ashok Sethia , said in a statement here.
India's import of vegetable oils during September 2009 has already set a new record and reported at 9,05,192 tonnes compared to 6,67,916-tonnes for September 08, registering a jump of 35 per cent, Mr Sethia said.
Import of vegetable oils during September 09 was the highest import for any given month since import was allowed under OGL in 1994. Overall import of vegetable oil during November 08 to September 09 jumped by 47 per cent to 7,975,683 tonnes from 5,429,24 7-tonnes for the same period last year.
The main reasons for increasing import are - disparity in domestic seed crushing; increasing per capita consumption of edible oils with rise in income; high price elasticity - lower price has boosted the demand and consumption; zero import duty on crude edible oil and very nominal duty on refined edible oils coupled with low international prices and depreciation of the dollar against Rupee by 5 per cent in recent months, Mr Sethia said.
Source : Business Line