MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--India's vegetable oil imports during March fell 1.3% from a year earlier to 632,868 metric tons due to higher imports in the past few months and large stocks at ports, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said Tuesday.
While imports slowed in the past month, overall imports increased during the first five months of the marketing year that began Nov. 1 as cheaper imports led to lower domestic crushing.
Total vegetable oil imports during November-February rose about 4.3% to 3.75 million tons, the trade body said in a statement.
A strong Indian rupee against the dollar, coupled with zero import duty on crude vegetable oils and marginal duty on refined vegetable oils, also raised imports during peak crushing season, it added. In India, the peak oilseed crushing season is October-February.
Edible oil stocks at ports also piled up due to the higher imports. As of April 1, total edible oil stocks at ports were at 700,000-800,000 tons, while stocks in the pipeline were at 500,000-600,000 tons, the trade body said.
Higher imports also left uncrushed domestic oilseeds at a record high, which stood at more than 18 million tons.
As of April 1, total soybean stocks are estimated at 4.5 million tons, rapeseed stocks at 6 million tons, groundnut stocks at 2 million tons and cottonseed stocks at 6 million tons.
Imports of edible oils may remain low in coming months if the processing of local oilseeds picks up, the trade body said.
Edible oil imports in March totaled 612,293 tons, marginally up from 609,553 tons a year earlier, it
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