GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 12th Feb. India’s palm oil imports in January 2025 fell to their lowest level in nearly 14 years as refiners turned to cheaper soyoil, driven by negative refining margins, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said on Wednesday.
Palm oil imports dropped 45% from December to 275,241 metric tons, marking the lowest level since March 2011. In contrast, soyoil imports rose 5.6% to 444,026 tons, the highest in seven months, while sunflower oil imports increased 8.9% to 288,284 tons.
The decline in palm oil shipments led to a 14.8% drop in total vegetable oil imports, bringing them to 1 million tons—the lowest in 11 months. This has also reduced India’s vegetable oil inventories to 2.18 million tons, the lowest since April 2022.
Despite expectations of a slight recovery in February, palm oil imports are likely to remain lower than usual, while soyoil imports may decline and sunflower oil imports could see a marginal rise, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at GGN Research.
India imports palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while soyoil and sunflower oil come from Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine.
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