India's palm oil imports in April fall over 24% m/m

India's vegetable oil imports in April plunged to their lowest in over four years, led by declines in palm oil imports, dragging inventories to their lowest in nearly five years, a leading industry body said on Wednesday.

Depleted stocks may mean India, the world's biggest buyer of vegetable oils, will increase imports of palm oil and soyoil in the coming months, supporting Malaysian palm oil prices and U.S. soyoil futures.

India's palm oil imports in April fell 24.29% from March to 321,446 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said.


Imports of soyoil increased 1.6% to 360,984 tons and sunflower oil imports fell 5.5% to 180,128 tons, the industry trade body said.

Lower imports of palm oil and sunflower oil brought down India's total vegetable oil imports in April to 891,558 tons, the lowest since February 2021, the SEA said.

Below-average imports for the past four months have reduced vegetable oil stocks in the country to 1.35 million tons as of May 1, the lowest since July 2020, according to SEA data.

In the first half of the 2024/25 marketing year, which ends in October, palm oil's share of India's total vegetable oil imports fell to 42% from 60%. Conversely, the combined share of soybean and sunflower oil rose to 58% from 40%.

Palm oil's premium over soyoil prompted Indian buyers to reduce palm oil purchases and increase soyoil buying in recent months.

But palm oil is trading at a discount to rival oils, which should lift imports from May onwards, said a New Delhi-based dealer with a global trading house.

"Indian buyers are price-sensitive. Since palm oil is now trading at a discount to soyoil, they have again switched from soyoil to palm oil," the dealer said.

India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.