India's Nov Vegetable Oil Imports Fall 28% to 11.83 Lakh Tonne as Palmolein Shipments Slide

India's vegetable oil imports fell 28 per cent year-on-year to 11.83 lakh tonne in November, the first month of the 2025-26 oil year, driven by a sharp decline in refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palmolein shipments, industry body SEA said on Monday.

The world's biggest vegetable oil importer had brought in 16.50 lakh tonne of vegetable oils, including edible and non-edible oils, in November 2024.

Overall palm oil imports declined 25 per cent to 6.32 lakh tonne in November from 8.42 lakh tonne a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.

RBD palmolein imports plunged to 3,500 tonne in November from 2.85 lakh tonne a year earlier, while crude sunflower oil shipments fell to 1.42 lakh tonne from 3.40 lakh tonne in the same period a year ago.

Crude soybean oil imports declined to 3.70 lakh tonne from 4.07 lakh tonne, and crude palm kernel oil imports fell to 1,850 tonne from 10,147 tonne, SEA data showed.

However, crude palm oil imports rose to 6.26 lakh tonne from 5.47 lakh tonne, while canola oil imports increased to 5,000 tonne from 22 tonne in the year-ago period.

Non-edible oil imports declined to 32,877 tonne in November from 37,341 tonne a year earlier.

Indonesia and Malaysia are the major suppliers of RBD palmolein and crude palm oil to India.

In November, Malaysia supplied 3,01,273 tonne of crude palm oil, while Indonesia shipped 1,23,456 tonne of crude palm oil and 3,500 tonne of RBD palmolein.

India mainly imported crude soybean degummed oil from Argentina (2,35,680 tonne), Brazil (50,062 tonne) and China (69,919 tonne), while crude sunflower oil came primarily from Russia (74,020 tonne), Argentina (34,933 tonne) and Ukraine (20,000 tonne).

Sowing of rabi or winter oilseed crops increased 2.40 per cent to 84.14 lakh hectare as of December 5, compared with 81.75 lakh hectare a year earlier.

The area under rapeseed and mustard seed rose 3.45 per cent to 79.88 lakh hectare from 76.43 lakh hectare, the SEA said.

Total edible oil stocks stood at 16.23 lakh tonne as of December 1, lower than 17.31 lakh tonne in the previous month, SEA said.