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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025

 

MUMBAI – India's sunflower oil imports have fallen in the past four months, despite lower stocks, because prices of the edible oil are higher than those of soyoil and palm oil, said Akshay Chowdhry, group vice president, Gemini Edibles & Fats India Ltd., in a panel discussion at Globoil India.

 

Imports have averaged 200,000 tonnes per month for the last three or four months as sunflower oil is at premium of $80-$100 per tonne to that of soyoil and palm oil. "We've been eating into our stocks, and the stock levels with the refiners are very low," Chowdhry said. Currently, India has an average inventory of barely 15 days until shipments arrive.

 

In 2023-24 (Apr-Mar), India had imported about 3.5 million tonnes of sunflower oil because of low prices compared with those of palm oil and soybean oil. The average imports in FY24 were 300,000 tonnes per month, Chowdhry said. In FY25, the imports fell to 2.7 million tonnes because of higher rates, he added.

 

In FY26, sunflower oil exports from Russia are seen at 1.5 million tonnes to 2.0 million tonnes, almost the same as that in FY25, said Anton Gristay, executive director, EFKO Russia. Russia's sunflower production in 2026 is seen around 18 million tonnes, he added. "This will give us 4 million tonnes of sunoil export in May 2026. And I assume, we may expect to export the same volume, between 1.5 and 2.0 million tonnes to India, depending on the price guarantee," he said.

 

There was a drought like condition in July and August in Russia which has affected the yield, so the output is going to be the same as 2024-25, Gristay said. Globally, sunflower oil production, which was earlier forecast at a surplus of 3 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes, has now been revised downward to 1.8 million tonnes to 2.0 million tonnes, experts at the event said.

 

Though soyoil can smell fishy, consumers are shifting from sunflower oil to soyoil as it is cheaper and on par with palm oil, Chowdhry said. Soyoil can smell fishy due to the oxidation of its polyunsaturated fatty acids, which produces volatile compounds like aldehydes and ketones, creating a rancid odor. "So we are having our importers in the south who are booking 10,000-15,000 tonnes of shipments of soyoil," he added.  End

 

Reported by Taniva Singha Roy and J. Navya Sruthi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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