Pakistan's palm oil market was mixed during the past week as imports stayed slow on low domestic demand that had kept prices stable, but dealers said fresh buying would emerge in days ahead as stocks were thin. "There is room for imports as stocks are now depleting," said Akbar Puri, a Karachi-based importer. "We expect some aggressive buying for April shipments in the next couple of weeks."
Dealers said importers had booked a few orders for RBD (refined, bleached and deodorised) palm olein as demand was rising on the domestic market because of attractive prices and low local duties as compared with RBD palm oil.
They said orders for 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of RBD palm olein had been booked during the past month, of which a good quantity had already arrived.
Pakistan imports about 1.3 million tonnes of edible oil products annually, mostly Malaysian palm oil and olein, to meet domestic demand of 1.9 million tonnes.
Locally produced cottonseed meets the rest of the country's demand. This season, Pakistan produced around 580,000 tonnes of cottonseed, up from the previous year's 400,000 on the back of a big cotton crop in 2004/05 (April-February).
Dealers put domestic stocks at around 900,000 tonnes.
Traders quoted palm olein on the local market at 1,630 rupees per maund (37.32 kg), unchanged from the previous week.
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