NEW DELHI: Amid the global slump in the price of edible oils, the government has advised the leading suppliers for further reduction in the retail prices by Rs 8-12 per litre as the international price of edible oils has fallen by USD 150-200 per tonne in the last two months.
Sanjeev Chopra, Secretary Department of Food and Public Distribution(DFPD), has today convened a meeting of leading industry representatives to discuss a further reduction in the retail prices of edible oils amidst a continued fall in global prices.
“The benefits of international price reduction should be passed on to retailers,” said Chopra.
It was the second meeting within a month to sustain the decreasing trend in domestic prices. The industry body, which participated in the meeting were including the Solvent Extraction Association of India (SEAI) and the Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association (IVPA), etc.
It is worth noting that India imports around 55% of edible oils to meet its domestic demand. Among all edible oils imported into India, palm oil import share is about 60% followed by sunflower oil and soybean oil.
According to DFPD, the consumption of edible oils in India will be around 24 million tonnes by 2025-26, while domestic production is 10.6 million tonnes.
Regarding types of edible oil consumed in India, palm oil represented 33% of the total, while soyabean oil, rapeseed and sunflower oil comprised 23%, 15% and 8%, respectively. Cottonseed oil and groundnut oil made up the remainder.
In the first meeting, Government persuaded the importers to reduce the retail cost of sunflower, soybean oil, mustard oil and other edible oils by Rs 5-15 per litre.
The government has directed the industry that price reduction also be reduced to distributors by the manufacturers and refiners so that the price drop is not diluted in any way. Other issues like price data collection and packaging of edible oils were also discussed in this meeting.