India's palm oil imports rose 22 per cent to 654,255 tonnes in May from a month ago, a trade body said on Monday, as buyers stocked up ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when demand for the tropical oil typically peaks.
Higher purchases by the world's top vegetable oil importer should help support benchmark palm oil prices that have dropped in five out of the past seven weeks.
India's total vegetable oil imports rose 24 per cent from a month ago to 1.03 million tonnes in May, data from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) showed.
"Refiners purchased more to build up stocks," said B.V. Mehta, executive director of SEA.
Imports of soyoil rose 54 per cent to 174,209 tonnes from a month ago, while sunflower oil imports rose to 5 per cent to 178,753 tonnes.
India mainly buys palm oil from top producers Indonesia and Malaysia. The South Asian country buys small quantities of crude soft oils, sourcing soyoil from Latin America and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia.
Last month, the price for imported crude palm oil (CPO) averaged $876 a tonne against $934 for soyoil and $942 for sunflower, the trade body data showed. In April, CPO was quoted at $907, soyoil $974 and sunflower oil $946.
May's total palm oil imports included refined oil of 100,605 tonnes, up 24 per cent from April as the import price in May was cheaper by $31 per tonne at $866.
Half of India's annual demand of 17-18 million tonnes of cooking oil is met through palm oil imports, while it buys about 1 million tonne each of crude soy and sunflower oil.
Souce:- economictimes.indiatimes.com
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