Sep 17 2010 6:53PM
MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--Indian edible oil prices declined during the week ended Sept. 17 on record imports and expectations of higher soybean output, traders and analysts said Friday.
The price of crude palm oil was INR41,500 a metric ton, down from INR42,300 Monday, while refined soyoil slipped to INR46,500 a ton from INR47,800. The price of refined, bleached and deodorized palm olein fell to INR45,100 a ton from INR46,700 a ton Monday.
"Edible oil imports are rising sharply...good rains in major growing areas have improved the prospects of higher (soybean) crop," said Alimuhammad Lakdawala, an analyst with Anand Rathi Commodities.
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are major producers of soybean, the main oilseed grown in summer. The country's soybean output is estimated to be more than the 8.5 million tons in the next crop year starting Oct. 1, according to industry officials.
India's vegetable oil imports in August rose 64% from a year earlier to 1.07 million metric tons, the highest shipment in a single month since 1994, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said early this week.
Total vegetable oil imports during the first 10 months of the marketing year that began on Nov. 1 rose 5% to 7.45 million tons from 7.07 million tons a year earlier, the trade body said.
India is the world's second-largest vegetable oil importer after China and meets more than half its vegetable oil requirements through imports as production lags consumption. The country imported a record 8.66 million tons of vegetable oil last marketing year.
B.V. Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors' Association, said total edible oil imports in 2009-10 will likely be around 9 million tons, taking into consideration the current import trend.
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