Edible oil imports by India, the world's largest buyer, fell by a sharp 65 percent in May from a year because of a significant rise in domestic output, a leading trade body said on Monday.
Imports during the month fell to 252,852 tonnes from 724,630 tonnes in the previous year, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said in a statement. India imports nearly half of its edible oil needs, mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina and Brazil.
"Increased supply of domestic oils following a good harvest has lowered imports in May. Also, overseas dying in the same month of 2003 was unusually high," B. V. Meath, executive director of the association, told Reuters.
Summer oilseeds output in India is estimated to have surged by 38 percent from a year to 8.29 million tonnes in 2003/04 (November-October), after the country received the best monsoon rains in a decade.
Oilseeds output for the whole year to October has been estimated at 24.98 million tonnes, up from 15.1 million tonnes from a year ago. Meath said edible oil imports were expected to fall by about one million tonnes in the April-June quarter from 1.77 million tonnes on the corresponding period of the previous year.
India imported 2.07 million tonnes of edible oil in the first seven months of the oil year that started in November 2003, down 26 percent from 2.81 million tonnes in November-May of 2003/04.
Traders said India's total edible oil imports in 2003/04 were expected to fall to 4.2 million tonnes from 5.1 million tonnes in the previous year.