Vegetable oil imports by India drop for 6th month
Thursday, 15 July 2010
MUMBAI, July 14 (Bloomberg): Vegetable oil imports by India, the second-biggest user after China, dropped for a sixth month in June as rising domestic inventories deterred buyers.
Purchases fell to 732,232 metric tonnes from 780,679 tonnes a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. Stockpiles were at 1.11 million tonnes on July 1 from 1.075 million on June 1, the group said.
Imports may jump as much as 24 per cent to 2.6 million tonnes in the quarter ending October 31 to meet demand during the festival season, Govindlal G Patel, who has been trading vegetable oils for four decades, said Tuesday in an interview. The price of Malaysian palm oil, which touched an eight-month low last week, may rise 18 per cent to 2,800 ringgit a tonne by November, he said.
"The declining trend will be reversed in the coming months as domestic supply is going down," said BV Mehta, executive director of the association. "Imports are bound to pick up as demand increases because of the festivals."
Purchases fell to 732,232 metric tonnes from 780,679 tonnes a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement. Stockpiles were at 1.11 million tonnes on July 1 from 1.075 million on June 1, the group said.
Imports may jump as much as 24 per cent to 2.6 million tonnes in the quarter ending October 31 to meet demand during the festival season, Govindlal G Patel, who has been trading vegetable oils for four decades, said Tuesday in an interview. The price of Malaysian palm oil, which touched an eight-month low last week, may rise 18 per cent to 2,800 ringgit a tonne by November, he said.
"The declining trend will be reversed in the coming months as domestic supply is going down," said BV Mehta, executive director of the association. "Imports are bound to pick up as demand increases because of the festivals."