India imported 659,979 tonnes of vegetable oils in January, down 8.5 percent from a year earlier, data released by a leading trade body showed on Tuesday, lower than the average forecast in a Reuters survey Palm oil imports - the bulk of India's edible oil purchases - eased 2.6 percent in January to 511,043 tonnes, data released by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) showed.
Soyaoil imports remained largely steady during the month, while overseas sunflower oil purchase slumped 24 percent on year to 89,500 tonnes, the data showed. India, the world's No 1 importer of cooking oils, buys mainly palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and a small quantity of soyaoil from Argentina and Brazil. A Reuters survey had forecast average vegetable oil imports of 714,375 tonnes in January. The imports in January were lower than 669,912 tonnes imported in December.
The country's vegetable oil imports in first three months of marketing year ending in October 2012 rose by 2 percent to 2.19 million tonnes due to higher purchases in November. The share of refined oil in total edible oil imports has been rising continuously as the gap between refined palm oil and crude palm oil has been narrowing after Indonesia changed export taxes, said B.V. Mehta, executive director of the trade body.
"The gap between refined palm oil and crude palm oil has come down to $30 per tonne. That is why importers are raising purchases of refined oils," Mehta said. In October 2011, the gap between crude palm oil and refined palm oil was $63 per tonne, the SEA data showed. "In coming months also this trend will continue. We will see more shipments of refined palm oil," Mehta said.
Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, altered taxes on exports to make refined palm oils more attractive than crude palm oil (CPO) from October, prompting warnings from refiners in India, the world's top cooking oil buyer, that they would be dealt a "death blow." India's edible oil imports in 2011/12 are likely to rise by 6.3 percent to 8.9 million tonnes and all the additional imports will be refined palm oil after Indonesia changed export taxes, a senior Indian industry official said last month.
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