Sharp rise in India's edible oil import

Friday, 24 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's import of edible oil has increased over 50 percent from 26.81 billion during April-July last year to 40.38 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal. "A significant feature of edible oil import is that while import of crude oil has gone up by 69 percent, that of refined palm oil and palmolein has increased by only 11 percent, indicating a better utilisation of the processing capacity in the country," the commerce ministry said in a statement Thursday. Imports of soybean crude oil, kernel crude oil and sunflower crude oil have also gone up in the first four months of the current year, mainly due to lower oilseed production last year, which witnessed the worst drought in three decades. During April-July, India's total imports of 300 products, which are being monitored for impact on domestic industries, rose 39 percent to 58.79 billion, as compared to 42.28 billion during the corresponding period last year, the official statement said. The gross import of all commodities during April-July this year has been 1.06 trillion as compared to 868.02 billion during the same period last year. "Thus import of 300 sensitive items constitute only 4.9 percent and 5.5 percent to the gross import during the last year and current year respectively," the commerce ministry has stated. While import of spices, tea and coffee, and milk and milk products have shown a decline at the broad group level during the period, products like edible oil, cotton and silk, fruits and vegetables, automobiles, rubber and small-scale industries products have shown increase during the period under study. In the case of fruit and vegetables, the increase has been from 4.96 billion to 5.43 billion in the four-month period this year. Automobile and components imports have jumped from 725.1 million to 1.22 billion. In terms of place of origin, import of sensitive items from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina, the U.S., Egypt, Thailand, Mali, Greece and Afghanistan have gone up, while those from China, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and Australia have shown some drop.
Source: IANS