India's vegetable oil imports in February may have tumbled more than a quarter from January as buyers slowed imports due to high global prices and increased domestic oilseeds crushing, a Reuters survey showed on Friday.
India, the world's top vegetable oil buyer, buys mainly palm oils from Indonesia, Malaysia, and small quantities of soyoil from Argentina and Brazil.
Early last month, the benchmark palm oil contract hit 3,967 ringgit ($1,306), a level not reached since March 2008, on supply concerns after massive floods in Malaysia swamped key oil palm areas and restocking by China after the Lunar Year break.
The country's vegetable oil imports, including non-edibles, in February are estimated to have fallen 26 percent from a year ago to 518,625 tonnes, the average of forecasts in the survey showed. India's palm oil imports may have fallen 29 percent in February over the previous month, according to the survey of eight traders, while soyoil imports were likely to rise 68 percent on seasonal demand.
Trade body the Solvent Extractors' Association of India is expected to release its data next week. In India, soyoil demand rises in the winter season as demand for rival palm, a tropical oil, slows down as it solidifies at lower temperatures.
The fall in month-on-month imports would continue in March as local oilseeds crushing gathers momentum, said Bhagwat Garg, a New Delhi-based trade analyst. Rapeseed, the main winter season oilseed crop, is harvested February onwards, raising domestic cooking oil supplies.
India will likely process 12 percent more local oilseed crops into cooking oil this year aided by normal rains, and is likely to trim imports of edible oil by up to 5 percent in the first such slowing in five years, easing global prices and blunting food-driven inflation. Low domestic prices improved demand for edible oils, reducing stocks at Indian ports by 5.6 percent to 533,125 tonnes, the survey showed.
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