The Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEAI), organisation to help and foster development of solvent extraction industry, said that the country's vegetable oil import soared marginally by 4% to 650,603 tonnes in August, compared with 622,813 tonnes in a year-ago period.
The entire vegetable oils import during November 2008 to August 2009 increased by 49% to 7,07, 0491 tonnes from 4,76,1331 tonnes for the same period of last year. "The erratic monsoon and dip in kharif oilseeds crop may further push up import during the festival months of September and October," it said in a statement.
According to SEAI data, in July 2009 the country imported about 5.57 lakh tonnes of edible oil and 38,601 tonnes of non-edible oil. At present, India is the world's second largest consumer of edible oils.
Among edible oils, import of palm group of oils has a share of 75% at 4.15 lakh tonnes, while the shipment of soft oils including soyabean and sunflower were at 1.41 lakh tonnes in the review period. Further, import of vegetable oil were significantly high in May and June at 7.51 lakh tonnes and 7.80 lakh tonnes respectively.
Total vegetable oil imports may touch 80 lakh tonnes during 2008-09 edible oil year. According to industry experts, vegetable oil imports in July were rather down as compared to May and June, due to congestion at ports. The shipment of fertiliser inputs were more frequent in July, the peak period for sowing of major kharif crops.
"Drought-like conditions have spread further and are meanwhile affecting one-third of the country. As on August 6, groundnut acreage is the worst affected. Oilseeds production will depend on how monsoon behaves in September," the Association said.
Source : fnbnews.com