Consumers should stay themselves for difficult times ahead, as Indonesia- India’s major source of palm oil imports banned exports of all edible oil raw materials on Friday to ease domestic insufficiency. India imports as much as half of its demand of 8.3 mt palm oil from Indonesia.
This is expected to shoot up prices in the Indian edible oil market, which is already weak under inflation amid post Covid consumption push combined with the Ramadan period and marriage season.
Edible oil prices have been on the rise up due to interruptions in sunflower oil since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war. The latest development from Indonesia is panic to impact prices. CPO prices are already up by 15% from $1,594 per tonne to $1,828 since February 2022. This has had an effect on non-palm oils, such as crude, sunflower oil, which has moved by 41% from $1,506 to $2,125 in last one month.
Govindbhai G Patel from Rajkot, Edible oil expert, maintained that to ease the possible supply shortage and control the price rise condition, diplomatic interruption apart from shifting of the 5 per cent import duty on edible oils may be required.
