India Plans To Switch To Soybean Oil After Palm Oil Price Spike

As global palm oil prices continue to soar, prompting India, the largest palm oil consumer, to plan to shift its palm oil demand to soybean oil.

Speaking at a global edible oil conference in Dubai, Sudhakar Desai, chairman of the Indian Vegetable Oil Producers Association, said palm oil was no longer an economically priced vegetable oil. Even Indian farmers have had to switch to peanuts, rapeseed, sunflower seeds and soya beans.

The ban on Indonesian palm oil exports should be lifted in May, he said.

For reference, in order to bring the price of domestic cooking oil down to Rp 14,000 per litre, Indonesian refiners would lose about US$80 million per month.

According to Desai's estimates, India's vegetable oil imports in 2021/2022 (November to October) will be only 12.53 million tonnes, down from 14 million tonnes in 2020/2021, and per capita vegetable oil demand will fall by 3% year-on-year.

India's palm oil imports are estimated to reach 7.3 million tonnes in 2021/2022, down from 8.83 million tonnes in 2020/2021. India's soybean oil imports are estimated to reach 3.62 million tonnes in 2021/22, up from 3.13 million tonnes in 2020/2021.

India's sunflower oil imports are estimated to reach 1.5 million tonnes in 2021/22, down from 1.96 million tonnes last year.