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Informist, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

 

By Taniva Singha Roy

 

MUMBAI – India is likely to have imported a total of 1.31 million tonnes of vegetable oil in October, down nearly 9% from a year ago. Similarly, vegetable oil imports were down sequentially by 18%, due to higher availability of domestic oilseeds during the kharif marketing season, according to estimates by Sunvin Group accessed by Informist. 

 

In September, the country had imported 1.60 million tonnes of edible oil, with total vegetable oil imports at 1.64 million tonnes, according to data from The Solvent Extractors' Association of India. In the first 11 months of the oil year 2024-25 (Nov-Oct), total vegetable oil imports were at 14.3 million tonnes, down 3% from 14.8 million tonnes a year ago, the association said.

 

"India's palm oil imports are estimated to have fallen over 22% on year to 622,165 tonnes in October as palm oil was costlier than soyoil, which is an alternative for the former," Sunvin Group Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Bajoria said. On a monthly basis, palm oil imports in October fell nearly 25%, according to the data. Of the total palm oil imports in October, crude palm oil imports are estimated at 602,042 tonnes and crude palm kernel oil is seen at 9,499 tonnes.

 

However, India's import of soft oils in October is seen at 689,097 tonnes, higher than 581,000 tonnes last year, according to the data. During Nov-Sept, import of soft oils, which include soyoil and sunflower oil, rose to 7.02 million tonnes from 6.37 million tonnes, led by soybean oil purchases. 

 

Import of crude soyoil in October is estimated at 436,966 tonnes, up from 342,000 tonnes last year. "Soyoil has been the best performer this year in terms of imports," Bajoria said. Sunflower oil imports in October is estimated to have increased to 242,131 tonnes from 239,000 tonnes a year ago. 

 

Although India's imports of vegetable oil in October fell on year, if imports of 700,000 tonnes from Nepal are taken into account, total imports in 2024-25 (Nov-Oct) would be roughly the same as last year. Nepal exports edible oil to India under the South Asia Free Trade Area agreement at zero duty.

 

The Solvent Extractors' Association will publish official figures of India's edible oil imports for October and for 2024-25 sometime in the second week of November.  End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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