India's Rising Edible Oil Consumption A Boon To Malaysia's Palm Oil Export

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- India's rising palm oil consumption and the shift in its consumers' preference for edible oils from oilseeds are a boon to Malaysia's palm oil export. Malaysia's extended duty structure on crude palm oil also lifts positive sentiment towards the commodity import. India's palm oil consumption for the 2013-2014 period stood at 42.11 per cent of the total oil consumption compared with 35.81 per cent in 2007-2008. The Solvent Extractors' Association of India executive director Dr BV Mehta said palm oil and soybean oil had become the leading edible oil consumed over the years, thanks to shortage of groundnuts, rapeseeds and cottonseeds from domestic production. "The domestic production of seed oils has not been able to keep pace with the increasing demand," he said when giving a presentation entitled "India as a Strategic Partner in Vegetable Oil Market" at the 26th Annual Palm and Lauric Oils Conference and Exhibition (POC2015) here Tuesday. Mehta projected that the consumption growth to rise to 5.6 per cent for 2014-2015 period from 4.5 per cent in 2013-2014. "Big emerging middle class and double digit growth of home consumption of edible oils, among others, drive higher demand in India," he said, adding that, a mismatch between demand and domestic production would lead to continuous palm oil import from Malaysia. In 2014, India imported 3.073 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia compared with 2.384 million tonnes in 2013. India's demand of edible palm oil far outstripped production, with this year's supply expected to be at 7.5 million tonnes (MnT) against the demand of 19.3 MnT. While the domestic supply is expected to remain unchanged next year, the demand is expected to grow to 20.3 MnT. Mehta said as domestic production could not catch up with the consumption growth, palm oil import is projected to grow to 13 MnT in 2016 from 12.5 MnT this year. -- BERNAMA