China's imports of vegetable oils are expected to rise to 3 million tonnes in the third quarter as it seeks to replenish its declining stocks, Oil World said on Tuesday. In recent weeks the Chinese government has made additional sales of vegetable oils - mainly rape and soyaa oil - from state reserves in order to push down domestic vegetable oil prices, the German-based publication said.
As a result, Chinese stocks are estimated to be 800,000 tonnes lower than in the same period last year, it said. Palm oil and soyaa oil will be the main beneficiaries, with imports in third quarter seen rising to 1.8 million and 0.6 million tonnes respectively.
China is the world's largest importer of soyabeans. However soya crushers, which produce oil and animal feed meal, are struggling with negative margins because of high prices. China's efforts to curb inflation have focused on edible oils such as soyaoil, rapeseed oil and palm oil over the past year. The government imposed a price cap on retail vegetable oil in November, but it removed caps on Tuesday hinting that supplies may be sufficient to ease food inflation worries.
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