Lang
India's vegetable oil imports fell 15% in March 2025, driven mainly by a sharp drop in palm oil imports. By contrast, imports of soft oils such as soybean oil and sunflower oil rose, signalling a shift in consumption preferences. Elevated palm oil prices and higher domestic production continued to weigh on overall demand.
The Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said on Friday that India's vegetable oil imports fell 15% year-on-year to 0.97 million tonnes in March.
Over the first five months of the oil marketing year (November to March), cooking oil imports fell by more than 2% to 5.63 million tonnes.
Over the same period, palm oil imports dropped sharply by 31% to 2.41 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, imports of soft oils such as soybean oil and sunflower oil rose to 3.22 million tonnes, up from 2.23 million tonnes in the same period a year earlier. As a result, palm oil's share of total cooking oil imports fell to 43% from 61%, while the share of soft oils rose to 57% from 39%.
Around 0.66 million tonnes of refined palm olein were imported between November 2024 and March 2025, compared with 0.88 million tonnes in the same period of the previous marketing year. At the same time, imports of crude oils rose to more than 4.97 million tonnes, against 4.87 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.
The association noted that "the share of refined oils fell from 15% to 12% due to lower imports of refined palm oil, while the share of crude oils rose from 85% to 88%, mainly on account of higher soybean oil imports."
At the start of April, the country's total cooking oil stocks stood at 1.66 million tonnes, down from 1.87 million tonnes the previous month, a decline of 0.21 million tonnes.
The association said vegetable oil consumption growth is expected to slow during the 2024-25 marketing year, adding that "the widening price gap for palm oil has curbed both imports and consumption in recent months, leading to a marked rise in the consumption of soybean oil and sunflower oil."
Cooking oil imports in 2023-24 had fallen slightly by 3% to 15.96 million tonnes compared with the previous year, owing to higher domestic oilseed production and weaker demand amid elevated prices.
The association also noted that exports of refined soybean oil from Nepal to India have risen, benefiting from customs duty exemptions, while exports of vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable fat) from Nepal and Sri Lanka to India have also increased recently.
India imports about 57% of its vegetable oil requirements, including palm oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil, with total annual consumption of around 25 million tonnes.
India imports crude palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, while soybean and sunflower oils are sourced from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.