India’s June palm oil imports jump 61% to hit 11-month high

India’s palm oil imports soared to an 11-month high in June, driven by lower domestic inventories and a price discount to rival soy oil and sunflower oil that encouraged refiners to ramp up purchases, according to five dealers.

Higher palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer of vegetable oils, will help bring down stocks in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia and support benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures.

Palm oil imports in June surged 61 per cent month-on-month to 953,000 metric tons, the highest since July 2024, according to estimates from dealers.

“Palm oil has been regaining lost market share since last month. It is now nearly $100 per ton cheaper than competing oils,” said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage.

India imported, on average, 475,699 tons of palm oil each month during the first seven months of the current marketing year ending October 2025, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, which is set to publish its June import data by mid-July.

In the last marketing year, India imported an average of more than 750,000 tons of palm oil each month.

Soyoil imports in June fell 9 per cent month-on-month to 363,000 tons, while sunflower oil imports rose 18 per cent to 216,000 tons, dealers estimated.

Higher imports of palm oil and sunflower oil lifted India’s total edible oil imports in June by 30 per cent from the month before to 1.53 million tons, the highest since November, according to dealers’ estimates.

Palm oil imports are expected to remain robust in the coming months as its prices are attractive amid a pickup in production in key producing countries, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at GGN Research, an edible oil trader.

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

Nepal’s edible oil imports were 75,000 tons in June, down from 155,000 tons in May, GGN Research estimated.

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Published on July 2, 2025