Traders had been expecting the rise because local supply of oilseeds had dropped. The rising trend is expected to continue, helping the benchmark Malaysian palm prices stay firm.
A Reuters survey had forecast average imports of 650,625 tonnes in May. Palm oil imports, which share the bulk of the imports, rose 51 percent in May over the previous month, while the monthly soyoil imports almost doubled.
Traders said higher palm stocks in Malaysia, the world's No. 2 producer of the tropical oil, made the imports cheaper, while a robust South American harvest and a fall in crude prices eased bio-diesel demand for soyoil.
India, the world's top vegetable oil importer, buys mainly palm oils from Indonesia and Malaysia, and small quantities of soyoil from Argentina and Brazil.
"The rise in imports would continue in the monsoon rainy season when planting of summer oilseeds takes place," said Pradip Desai, a Mumbai-based trader.
May vegetable oil imports were 18.8 percent higher over the 558,765 tonnes imported in the same month a year ago, said the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors' Association of India in a statement.
India bought 4.3 million tonnes of vegetable oils in the first seven months of the current vegetable oil marketing year from November, down 10 pecent from the same period the previous year.
COPYRIGHT REUTERS, 2011