India reduced vegetable oil imports by 17% in September

In September, compared to August, India reduced palm oil imports by 26% to a 3-month low of 834,797 thousand tons due to the increase in stocks at refiners. This could lead to an increase in inventories in the main producer countries of Malaysia and Indonesia, which would increase pressure on prices.

According to the Indian Solvent Producers Association (SEA), the import of vegetable oils in September decreased by 17% from August's record 1.87 million tons to 1.55 million tons, in particular sunflower - by 17.8% to 300,732 thousand tons, although the import of soybean oil of oil increased by 0.1% to 358,557 thousand tons.

"In July and August, India imported more oil than it needs, although retail demand in the country remains weak. Now processors are trying to sell previously imported oil," said a trader from Mumbai, who sells edible oil.

In recent months, India has been a major buyer of surplus oil thanks to the reduction of import duty on crude palm oil, crude soybean oil and crude sunflower oil to 5.5%. If last year, on September 1, domestic reserves of vegetable oils amounted to 2.4 million tons, this year they reached 3.7 million tons, SEA reports.

In October, the country may further reduce vegetable oil imports due to low retail demand and the start of its own processing of new crop soybeans.

India buys palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and soybean and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

The decline in demand from the world's largest importer immediately led to a drop in prices for all vegetable oils, which will continue for at least another 2 months amid a seasonal increase in the supply of all types of oils.