COMMODITY
India’s vegetable oil imports decline 22% in May 2025
Jun-13-2025

Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) in its latest report said that India’s vegetable oil imports fell for the sixth consecutive month by 22.36 per cent to 11.87 lakh tonnes in May 2025 as compared to 15.29 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.  During the first seven months of the 2024-25 oil year (November-October), total vegetable oil imports decreased to 78.84 lakh tonnes, from 86.78 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period a year earlier. On May 30, the government reduced the basic import duty on palm, soybean and sunflower oils to 10 per cent from 20 per cent, effectively reducing the total import duty from 27.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent.

As per the SEA data, palm oil imports fell 22.32 per cent to 5.92 lakh tonnes in May from 7.63 lakh tonnes a year ago, with crude palm oil shipments down 5.03 per cent to 5.05 lakh tonnes in May 2025. Among soft oils, soyabean oil imports declined 23 per cent to 3.98 lakh tonne, while sunflower oil imports plunged 55.30 per cent to 1.83 lakh tonne. The share of palm oil decreased to 42 per cent from 58 per cent in the last seven months, while soft oils increased to 57 per cent from 42 per cent.

India, the world's largest edible oil consumer and importer, had edible oil stocks of 13.33 lakh tonnes as of June 1. The import of nearly 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of refined edible oils every month from Nepal affecting overall import by India and thereby stock position. Indonesia and Malaysia are the major palm oil suppliers to India, while Argentina, Brazil and Russia supply soybean oil. Russia and Ukraine are the main suppliers of sunflower oil.

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