Unrestricted Import of Refined Oil is Bad for Local Industry - SEA

Still from India, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) has requested the Government to withdraw its decision to freely allow the import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil, saying that such a decision would kill the domestic refining industry and will have serious repercussions on farmers, reports The Hindu BusinessLine on July 06.  

In a letter to Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, SEA President Atul Chaturvedi said, “The ‘opening up’ by freely allowing import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil will have serious repercussions for both domestic refiners and farmers as this will have a dampening effect on the prices of domestic oilseeds. Also, refined oil import will surely send the industry to the door of bankruptcy as we have seen in the past with so many refineries.” 

When the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had placed the import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil under the ‘Restricted List’ from January 8, 2020, SEA said such decision greatly helped domestic edible oil refiners to increase their capacity utilization by processing larger quantities of crude palm oil (CPO).  Import of RBD palmolein dropped from 27.3 lakh tons during the oil year November-October 2018-19 to 4.21 lakh tons in the corresponding period of 2019-20, and hardly 21,000 tons arrived in India during November-May of the oil year 2020-21.  This had incentivized more investors in the industry in the past one-and-a-half years.