Cooking oil rates to hike as farmers hoard soyabean stocks

KOLKATA: Cooking oil prices are set to go up before the Lok Sabha elections as the farmers are holding back the soybean stock. Price of soybean has appreciated by Rs 300 per quintal in last fortnight which will make soy oil costlier and also leave an impact on the entire edible oil complex. Talking to ET, Rajesh Agarwal , co-ordinator , Soybean Processors Association (SOPA) said: "Farmers are not offloading soybean in the mandis in adequate quantities. This is pushing up prices of the crop. In last fortnight prices have gone up to Rs 4,200 per quintal from Rs 3,900 per quintal."

The expected soybean crop this kharif is around 120 lakh tonne. "Till now 50 lakh tonne of soybean has been marketed. It is too early to predict how much crop is lying with the farmers now. There is not exact data on this," Agarwal said.

International prices of soybean have also firmed up as weather conditions in South America has affected the crop. This has made imports of soybean oil costlier as well. India imports more than 50% of its domestic edible oil demand. Overseas shipments of India hovers around 10.6 -10 .8 million tonne. The imported price of soybean oil has appreciated by $100 per tonne to $1,000.