By Shakir Husain
NEW DELHI, Feb 14 (NNN-Bernama) — India imported 376,612 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in January, representing 68 per cent of its total imports of the commodity.
According to data released by the trade group Solvent Extractors’ Association of India today, the imports from Malaysia were made up of 296,548 tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO), 68,855 tonnes of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein and 11,209 tonnes of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO).
It said palm oil’s share in the country’s 1.25 million tonnes total edible oil imports last month was 44 per cent.
India has recently taken a number of steps, including reductions in import taxes, to boost domestic supplies of edible oils to control rising retail prices.
Earlier this month, the government put limits on the quantities of edible oils and oilseeds traders are allowed to keep in their stocks in order to curb hoarding and price manipulation.
The stock limit was fixed at 3 tonnes for edible oil retailers and 50 tonnes for wholesalers while processors of edible oils were allowed to stock 90 days of their storage capacities.
— NNN-BERNAMA
