India's February vegetable oil imports fell 8 percent to 700,769 tonnes from a year ago as higher purchases in the previous months pushed up port stocks, a leading trade body said on Monday. Imports - which were at 762,544 tonnes in February last year - were, however, up 6.9 percent in the first four months of the oil year that began in November at 3.1 million tonnes, data from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India showed.
India, the world's top vegetable oil importer, buys mainly palm oils from Indonesia and Malaysia and a small quantity of soyaoil from Argentina and Brazil. The country had bought 2.9 million tonnes during November-February a year earlier. Edible oil imports in February fell 8 percent to 671,293 tonnes from 730,094 tonnes a year earlier, and were down 19 percent from 827,182 tonnes from January.