NEW DELHI: The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is soon going to impact the price of cooking oil in India as it imports 93% of sunflower seeds oil from these two countries. As per the Commerce Ministry data, India consumes around 2.5 million tonnes (mt) of sunflower oil annually but it only produces 50,000 tonnes of sunflower oil and imports the rest.
Sunflower oil accounts for 14% of all edible oil imports. It is the fourth most consumed edible oil, after palm (8-8.5 mt), soyabean (4.5 mt) and mustard/rapeseed (3 mt). The price of sunflower oil rose from `98 a litre in February 2019 to `161 February 2022.
India’s sunflower oil imports is 2.5 mt in 2019-20 (April-March) and 2.2 mt in 2020-21, valued at $1.89 billion and $1.96 billion, respectively. From Ukraine it imports 1.93 mt (worth $1.47 billion) in 2019-20 and 1.74 mt ($1.6 billion) in 2020-21, with Russia it imports around 0.38 mt ($287 million) and 0.28 mt ($235.89 mt).
Some quantities were also imported from Argentina: 0.17 mt in 2019-20 and 0.14 mt in 2020-21. Like crude oil, the global sunflower oil prices have been rising even before the declaration of war by Russia.