India’s palm oil imports fall in July

India’s palm oil imports in July fell 10per cent from a month ago, as refiners ramped up purchases of rival soyoil to take advantage of New Delhi’s move to allow duty-free imports of the vegetable oil to calm all-time high prices, a trade body said on Friday.

Higher soyoil purchases by the world’s biggest edible oil importer will support U.S. soyoil prices , but will dent rival palm oil’s share in Indian buying and force Malaysian and Indonesian sellers to offer discounts to regain the market share, traders said.

India’s palm oil imports in July fell to 530,420 tonnes from 590,921 tonnes a month earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.

Soyoil imports in July jumped 125per cent from a month ago to a record 519,566 tonnes, while sunflower oil imports rose 30per cent to 155,300 tonnes.

India in late May allowed duty-free imports of 2 million tonnes each of soyoil and sunflower oil for the current and next fiscal years ending March 31, as part of efforts to keep a lid on local edible oil prices.

Through the end of June, soy oil’s premium over palm oil was less than $150 per tonne, but since palm oil attracts a 5.5per cent import tax, palm oil was effectively more expensive for Indian buyers, brokers said.