Datetime: 2025-07-08 07:33:56 Visit: 5196
Indian edible oil market prices diverge, import volume rebounds significantly
In recent days, the Indian edible oil market has shown a complex situation. As of the week of June 6, 2025, the price of imported edible oils has fallen significantly. At the same time, the price of some domestic edible oils has risen, and the import volume of edible oils has rebounded sharply in May.
In terms of price, the price of imported edible oils has fallen significantly. Last Friday, India's imported 24-degree refined palm oil was quoted at 114,500 rupees per ton, down 2,500 rupees or 2.14% from a week ago; soybean oil was quoted at 109,600 rupees at the Port of Mumbai, down 5,800 rupees or 5.03%; imported crude palm oil was quoted at 105,800 rupees at the Port of Kandla, down 8,700 rupees or 7.60%. The price of domestic peanut oil in India was 135,000 rupees per ton, up 1,000 rupees or 0.75%; the price of rapeseed oil was 141,500 rupees per ton, up 500 rupees or 0.35%; but the price of sunflower oil was 124,000 rupees, down 6,000 rupees or 4.62%.
In terms of import volume, the Indian Palm Oil Association has not yet released official data on edible oil imports in May, but dealers estimate that India's palm oil imports in May surged 87% month-on-month to 600,000 tons, the highest level since November last year, but it was still lower than the average of previous years for the sixth consecutive month (the monthly average in 2023/24 exceeded 750,000 tons). Due to low domestic inventories and lower palm oil prices than soybean oil and sunflower oil, refineries increased their purchasing efforts, pushing the total import volume of vegetable oil in May to 1.18 million tons, a month-on-month increase of 37%, the peak since December last year. Among them, soybean oil imports increased by 10% month-on-month to 398,000 tons, and sunflower oil increased slightly by 2% to 184,000 tons.
Traders pointed out that the high price of palm oil led to weak imports in January-April this year. On May 1, domestic vegetable oil stocks fell to 1.35 million tons, down 18.9% month-on-month and 41.9% year-on-year, the lowest since July 2020. The decline in stocks has prompted India to increase edible oil imports in the coming months to rebuild stocks, and the Indian government's reduction of the import tax on crude edible oil from 20% to 10% in June further stimulated demand. Analysts expect palm oil imports to increase to 750,000 tons in June and 850,000 tons in July.
From the perspective of relevant market trends, as of the week of June 6, August palm oil futures on the Malaysian Derivatives Exchange (BMD) closed at 3,917 ringgit per ton, up 1.01% from a week ago; July soybean oil futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed at 47.50 cents per pound, up 1.30%; September soybean oil futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at 7,738 yuan per ton, up 1.31% from a week ago; September palm oil futures closed at 8,110 per ton, up 0.62% from a week ago.
As the world's largest importer of edible oil, India needs about 2.1 million tons of edible oil per month, about 25.5 million to 26 million tons per year. The price fluctuations and import volume changes in the edible oil market this time reflect the adjustment of supply and demand in the Indian domestic market, which is closely related to the dynamics of the international edible oil market.
