India's edible oil imports hit a five-year low in December after a record winter oilseed crop and the trend is likely to continue over coming months with a bumper summer crop forecast, a senior industry official said.
The world's largest vegetable oil importer bought about 235,000 tonnes of edible oil in December, the lowest since 1998.
Imports in December 2002, were 316,000 tonnes and in 1998 the country bought 256,254 tonnes, the official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
Traders said the output of summer oilseeds, for which harvesting begins next month, is likely to be about 8.5 to 9.0 million tonnes, compared with 6.0 million the previous summer.
"The weather is excellent and the dew is helping the crops," said a leading trader based in Jaipur, the capital of the largest mustard growing state, Rajasthan.
India mainly grows mustard and groundnut in summer. The country has already harvested its best winter oilseed crop, 14.24 million tonnes, helped by good monsoons.
Soyabean and groundnut are the country's main winter oilseed crops. India, the world's largest edible oil buyer, imports almost half its vegetable oil requirement of more than 10 million tonnes. It buys palm oils from Malaysia and Indonesia and soyaoil from Argentina and Brazil.
The official said imports of vegetable oils in the January-March quarter were likely to be lower than previous years as the crushing of domestic oilseeds was in full swing.
"Our hands are already full with the winter crop and soon we are going to start harvesting for the summer crop.
I think imports will continue to remain subdued," the official said.
Traders said firm vegetable oil prices had encouraged farmers to shift from grains to oilseeds and the area under oilseeds was higher than the previous year.
Dealers said annual imports for 2003/04 (November-October) were expected to fall a million tonnes to about 4.1 million tonnes from the previous year on the back of good harvests.
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