Veg oil imports rise to Rs 28000 cr

Import of vegetable oil - edible oil, non-edible and vanaspati - in 2008- 09 (Nov - Oct) touched an all time high of 86.6 lakh tonnes, an increase of 37% from 63.1 lakh tonnes in 2007 - 08. According to Solvent Extractors Association of India, the total value of the import of vegetable oil rose to Rs.28000/- crore in 2008 -09 from Rs.25000/- crore in previous year.

The industry is witnessing a rise in per capita consumption, along with a friendly tax regime and rising demand are some of the reasons stated for the increase in import of vegetable oil. Apart from this, the appreciation of Rupee against dollar also helped in reducing the price of import as it made overseas purchase cheaper.

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Edible oil import during Nov - Oct 09 is at 81.82 lakh tonnes, as against 56.08 lakh tonnes in the last year, an increase of 46%. On monthly basis, the total import of vegetable oil in the month of Oct '09 is down by 20% compared with last year.

Despite Nov to April being the peak period for domestic crushing, the import on the whole has not come down and the raising import trend is a worrying situation, as reported by industry experts. Lower tax coupled with reduction of price in international market has seen a steady import of at least 20 lakh tonnes per quarter.

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One of the components of the vegetable oil, Refined palm oil which accounts for 15% of total import of edible oil, has seen an increase of 36% from 48 lakh tonnes in last year to present 65.50 lakh tonnes during Nov '08 to Oct '09.

The import of soft oil has indeed doubled from7.99 lakh tonnes in last year to 16.48 lakh tonnes during the same period this year. India is buying palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and soya oil from Brazil and Argentina. India imports around half of its consumption of 12 million tonnes.

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Steady raise in procurement of rice by FCI and state agencies:

Procurement of rice for the crop year 2009 - 10 has crossed 11 million tonnes despite drop in kharif output of around 15 million tonnes due to recent drought and government is expecting to good rainfall to see a good harvest in the coming quarters.

This is mainly attributed because of the timely announcement of MSP (minimum support price) and strategies by state governments are helping the government to procure substantial quantities of rice from the market. As usual, Punjab and Haryana are the two most prominent states procured in bulk and accounted for 8.9 million tonnes and 1.7 million tonnes, respectively to the central pool.

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To offset the losses in kharif rice harvest, the government is planning to increase acreage under boro rice to 1.5 million hectare from around 1.2 million hectare in states such as West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Western Uttar Pradesh. The centre's procurement period is between October and September. Last year, the government has procured almost 34 million tonnes as against 28 million tonnes in previous 2007 - 08.

Shabbir Bhimani, developer by profession in the field of web and database. Currently doing full time blogging and like to share experiences on how you can make money online at CodeItWell.com

The views expresses are the author’s and not of Sify.com

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