Indian Vegetable Oils Import Up in Oil Year 2021/22

Data from The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) showed the country’s import of vegetable oils (edible and non-edible oils) during the Oil Year 2021/22 (November ’21 to October ’22) reached 14.410 million MT, topping prior year total at 13.531 million by 6.5%. Cost of import was USD19.60 billion, 25.6% higher than previous year at USD15.6 billion. Import cost has seen continuous rise since 2018/19 oil year where at that time was placed at USD9.00 billion.
Edible oil remained the bulk of import and during the oil year 2021/22 was 14.030 million MT, higher by 6.8% from the preceding year at 13.132 million MT.  Of this total, palm oil products (RBD palm olein, crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil) totaled 7.915 million MT (8.320 million MT previously); soybean oil was 4.171 million MT (2.866 million MT), sunflower oil 1.944 million MT (1.894 million MT). There was no reported import of rapeseed oil while in prior year a minor amount was recorded at 0.052 million MT.
Malaysia was leading supplier of edible oils during the period, exclusively palm oil at 3.589 million MT; followed by Indonesia, likewise exclusively palm oil at 3.492 million MT; Argentina at 2.969 million MT mainly crude soybean oil; Brazil 1.255 million MT, mainly crude soybean oil; Ukraine 957,956 MT, mainly crude sunflower oil; Thailand 708,538 MT exclusively palm oil; Russia 481,536 MT, mainly sunflower oil; and USA 159,815 MT exclusively crude soybean oil.