by PressIndia plans to increase sunflower oil imports this and next season
Government wants to restore sunflower oil imports to pre-pandemic volumes
The Indian government announced plans to increase imports of sunflower oil in the season 2021/2022. As for the current period, here it is projected to reduce the supply of products in the country. A total of 1.8 million tons of oil will be imported, which is almost 77% less than last season — 2.35 million tons.
India argues its decision to reduce the purchase of products due to the rise in price of sunflower oil from its main exporters — Ukraine, Argentina and Russia. In these countries there was observed a decrease in the yield due to adverse weather conditions, which significantly affected the pricing.
However, experts are optimistic about the new season of 2021-2022. According to forecasts, the weather will contribute to a large volume of sunflower production. Therefore, the Indian government intends to increase imports to the level of 2.3 million tons. Authorities also hope that high oilseed crop yields will lead to price stabilization. It is expected that the price premium of sunflower oil compared to soybean oil will be 20-50 dollars per ton.
The main exporter of the product for India is Ukraine, accounting for 70% of supplies, with Argentina and Russia selling 15% each of the country’s total imports.
In 2019, the volume of consumption of all vegetable oils in India was 23.5 million tons, 15.5 million tons of this amount were foreign-made. However, under the impact of the pandemic, oil consumption dropped to 21.2 million tons, of which 13.2 million were purchased from foreign exporters and 8 million tons were produced domestically.
In 2021 the use of oils is increasing, but high prices on the world market and the second strong wave of coronavirus, which was observed in the first half of the year, hamper the big growth. Taking these factors into account, experts believe that consumption will not exceed 21.2 million tons. Import supplies will be at the level of 13.2 million tons, and local production will remain unchanged — 8 million tons.
The increase in the cost of sunflower oil on the consumer market causes concern among the Indian authorities. One of the options to stabilize prices is considered as increasing the production of oilseeds and products of their processing. To this end, the government introduced a number of programs designed to support local farmers. First of all, it concerns price incentives and a number of subsidies that contribute to the expansion of cultivated areas of sunflower. The possibility of reducing the duty by 10% is also being considered, but so far the information has not been confirmed. It is known that a number of large Indian farmers have already increased their sunflower acreage.