The reason for the import decline is the slow growth tempo of oil consumption in India – 0.7 mln tons versus 1.2 – 1.3 mln tons in previous years as well as the active use of oil stocks in the country, which dropped to 1 mlm tons before the end of March.

Moreover, India hopes to achieve good oilseed production during the season, which will increase the domestic oilseed production by 1.28 mln tons to 5.89 mln tons.

Over the month of March, oilseed oil import in India reached 1.1 mln tons, which was 8% less than March 2016. Soybean delivery was 230,000 tons (322,000), sunflower oil delivery was 0.18 mln tons (0.19) and palm oil delivery was 683,000 tons (643,000). Over the first half of the season, 6.9 mln tons of oilseed oil (8) were imported in the country including 1.32 mln tons of soybean oil (2.3), 1.04 mln tons (0.7) of sunflower oil and 4.33 mln tons (4.68) of palm oil.

Since the start of the current wheat purchase campaign, 3.8 mln tons of wheat have been bought in India, which has been 6% more than the same period of last year. If the campaign tempo remains the same, the plan for 33 mln tons will be achieved. Only 23 mln tons of wheat were bought last year, which was 5 mln tons lower than the plan.