India turns to palm oil as sunflower oil imports hit 4-year low in September

By Rajendra Jadhav and Pablo Sinha

MUMBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - India's sunflower oil imports slumped to their lowest in more than four years in September as war-related disruptions curbed supplies from Russia and Ukraine, prompting refiners to ramp up palm oil purchases to a seven-month high, a leading industry body said on Thursday.

Higher palm oil buying by the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils could help top producers Indonesia and Malaysia bring down stocks and support benchmark palm oil futures .

India's sunflower oil imports in September fell 32% from a month ago to 108,837 metric tons, the lowest since April 2022, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India said on Thursday.

Palm oil imports rose 4.5% to 817,884 metric tons from August, while soyoil fell 2.2% to 614,965 metric tons, it said.

Edible oil imports fell 1.76% to 1.54 million metric tons, driven by lower shipments of sunflower oil and soyoil.

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India sources most of its palm oil ​from Indonesia and ​Malaysia, while ⁠soyoil and sunflower oil are imported mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.

Sunflower oil supplies remain ample, but exporters are struggling to ship the oil to India as war-related damage to Black Sea port infrastructure disrupts logistics, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm.

Russian and Ukrainian attacks on ports in the Black Sea region in recent weeks have disrupted loading operations at ports used to ship grains and vegetable oils.

A shipment of Russian sunflower oil bound for India was cancelled and other cargoes have been delayed after attacks on Black Sea ports disrupted exports from India's top supplier, an industry official and trade sources said last week.

Rising demand during India's festive season, coupled with tight sunflower oil supplies, is prompting refiners to increase palm oil purchases as a substitute, the dealer said.