India's palm oil imports fall to 14-month low in June as demand softens

India’s palm oil imports fell to a 14-month low in June as demand collapsed and a narrowing discount to rival oils prompted buyers to cut purchases, a leading industry body said on Tuesday.

Palm oil imports fell about 11% from the previous month to 487,846 metric tons, their lowest since April 2025, according to Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors’ Association of India.

Lower buying by the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils could swell stocks in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia and weigh on benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures.

Imports of soyoil dropped 23% to 380,815 tons, and sunflower oil imports were down about 18% to 242,870 tons, the association said, while total vegetable oil imports fell 16% to 1.15 million tons.

India, the world’s second-largest importer of cooking gas, has been grappling with its worst gas crisis in decades, as the government cuts supplies to industry and raises commercial cylinder prices.

“The drop in Indian buying is a ripple effect of simultaneous biofuel mandates introduced by Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States,” SEA said.

“These policies are pulling millions of tonnes of vegetable oils out of the food economy and into the fuel economy, driving up global spot prices.”

The decline in imports was also caused by the vanishing price discount of palm oil against soft oils like soy, which dropped to under $50 a ton, the trade body said.

India sources most of its palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, while soyoil and sunflower oil are imported mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.

From November to June, India imported about 1.96 million tons of palm oil from Malaysia and 1.88 million tons from Indonesia.