Major producers of edible oils, including Adani Wilmar and Emami, have started lowering the cost of their most popular products as a way of passing on the benefits of the decline in prices elsewhere to customers. At a meeting with business organisations last week, the food ministry pushed producers to lower costs. The maximum retail price for edible oils has been declining since January. With the decline in commodity prices, this is consistent. Angshu Mallick, MD & CEO, Adani Wilmar, stated that additional price cuts would be necessary depending on the circumstances.
Fortune soyabean oil costs less than 18% per litre since January thanks to Adani Wilmar. According to industry experts, it has decreased from Rs 170 per litre in January to Rs 140 per litre as of May. Price reductions, according to Mallick, have aided the business’s volume growth during the past three months. When announcing its March quarter results on Wednesday, the business noted that Adani Wilmar’s branded edible oil sales volume increased by 4% over the corresponding quarter in the previous year as a consequence of strong customer demand brought on by lower edible oil costs.
The maker of the edible oil brand Healthy & Tasty, Aditya Agarwal, director of Emami group, stated, “We have been lowering prices by roughly 2-3% a month since January this year. Customers are receiving the price reduction from us. “In the previous three to four months, the price of edible oils has drastically dropped on a global scale. However, the food ministry noted in a meeting on Thursday with representatives of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) and Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association that domestic prices had not fallen sufficiently to reflect weakening worldwide markets.
The majority of the top companies have, however, lowered the costs of edible oils over the past several months in line with the declining rates on the global market, according to a statement released by SEA on Friday. We have now recommended the members to further lower the MRP and wholesale pricing of edible oils, the statement read. On April 28 of this year, the landing price of palm oil (at Mumbai port), which accounts for about 60% of the nation’s imports, dropped by 44% to $1,000 per tonne from the previous day’s $1,791 per tonne. Crude soy and sunflower oil landing prices have fallen by 50% and 55%, to $960 per tonne and $990 per tonne, respectively.
India imports roughly 56% of its 24–25 million tonne (MT) yearly use of edible oil. The annual import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia is about 8 MT. In terms of domestic edible oils, mustard accounts for 40%, soybeans for 24%, groundnuts for 7%, and other oils. In March 2023, the retail inflation rate for the oil and fat categories decreased by 7.86% from the previous month. Prices for mustard oil dropped by 14.65% last month. Palm, soybean, and sunflower refined oil inflation decreased by 10.93% in March 2023 as well.
