Ruchi Soya expects sunflower oil imports to hit record high

India's sunflower oil imports are likely to jump 54 per cent to a record high in the year to October 2014 as Ruchi Soya Industries trims palm oil purchases to make room for the soft oil, according to a top official of the company.

 

The rise in sunflower oil imports would provide support to prices that are under pressure due to a record crop in top producer Ukraine, but will cap palm oil prices that have risen in the last two months on a likely drop in production in top two producing countries.

 

"We are expecting palm oil imports would drop significantly to around 7.4 million tonnes from 8.17 million tonnes last year due to price spreads in favour of soft oils," said Dinesh Shahra, managing director of the world's biggest edible oil importer.

 

India is likely to buy 1.45 million tonnes sunflower oil in 2013-14, higher than the previous record purchase of 1.1 million tonnes in 2011-12, Mr Shahra said. India imports most of its sunflower oil from Ukraine and palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

 

The country's total edible oil imports are set to rise by 4 per cent in 2013-14 to 10.8 million tonnes due to higher imports of soft oils like sunflower and soyoil, he said.

 

The price gap between crude palm oil and crude sunflower oil narrowed to $47 per tonne in February, compared with $430 per tonne during the same period last year, data compiled by Solvent Extractors Association showed.

 

As of 3:00 p.m., shares in Ruchi Soya Industries were trading at Rs 27.20 apiece on the BSE, up 0.37 per cent from the previous close.