India’s import of refined palm oil drops to nil for the 2nd month
India’s refined palm oil imports dipped to zero for the second consecutive month in August this year as against 2.57 lakh tonnes imported during the same month last year, according to trade body Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA).
The import restrictions placed on the refined palm oil (RBD Palmolein) has encouraged domestic processing as there has been a 23 per cent rise in crude palm oil (CPO) imports to 7,24,351 tonnes in August this year as against 5,87,329 tonnes recorded in the corresponding month last year.
Covid-19 impact: Palm oil imports drop 14% in August
India’s palm oil imports in August dropped 13.9 per cent from a year earlier to 734,351 tonnes, a leading trade body said on Friday, due to a sluggish recovery in demand from hotels and restaurants as local coronavirus cases continued to rise.
The country’s soy oil imports dropped 10.4 per cent year-on-year to 394,735 tonnes last month, while sunflower oil imports fell 31 per cent to 158,518 tonnes, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
Kharif paddy acreage tops 40 m ha
Acreages of paddy, the main cereal crop for the kharif cropping season, crossed 40 million hectares on Friday, marking an increase of 8 per cent over the previous year, as more farmers have taken up planting in States such as Telangana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, among others.
The transplanting of paddy will continue in several States till the end of this month while sowing for majority of the crops for the season has come to an end. This increase in acreages has raised the prospects for yet another bumper harvest this cropping season.
