As the premiums of soft oils, such as sunflower and soybean oil, to palm oil narrow, the country has been importing more of these palm alternatives, according to a report by the Solvent Extractors Association of India. Meanwhile, imports of palm oil fell 13.5% on the year to 2MM mt during Nov. 2019 to Jan. 2020. Market sources have predicted that imports in Feb. will likely fall to around 500K mt. Indian companies have increased purchases of sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine and soybean oil from Argentina. In the Nov.-Jan. quarter, sunflower oil imports rose 26.8% on the year to 762K mt while soybean oil imports were 24.9% higher compared to the year-earlier period at 593K mt. Additionally, soft oil imports made up 40% of edible vegetable oil imports in Nov.-Jan., a 32% year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, the share of palm oil fell to 60% of total imports, compared to 68% in Nov. 2018 to Jan. 2019. Even though palm oil has traditionally been a cheaper product, the narrowing spread between the vegetable oils may lead to a permanent shift in India's vegetable oil import market structure. The US Department of Agriculture projects that India will import 9.75MM mt of palm oil for the 2019-2020 marketing year (Nov.-Oct.) while imports of soybean oil and sunflower oil will be at 3.5MM mt and 2.6MM mt, respectively.
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