Edible Oil Imports Likely To Go Up On Oilseeds Output Drop

New Delhi: Edible oil imports are expected to go up this year as the country is expected to see a 20 lakh tonne drop in total oilseeds output owing to a 8.8 per cent decline in acreage to 93.66 lakh hectares, according to industry sources. In 2005-06 (November-September), the country had imported 44 lakh tonne of edible oil. While rabi oilseeds output is expected to drop by 11 per cent this year because of a fall in acreage by 8.8 per cent, kharif oilseeds output is estimated to decrease by 8.6 lakh tonne to 128.4 lakh tonne. While rapeseed, mustard, groundnut, sunflower, linseed and safflower are the major rabi oilseeds. Soyabean, sesamum, niger and castorseed are the major Kharif oilseeds, which account for nearly 65 per cent of total oilseeds acreage and about 60 per cent of the country's oilseeds production. According to estimates by the Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade (COOIT), rabi oilseeds output is likely to decline by 11.3 lakh tonne to 91.4 lakh tonne this year. The estimates are an indication of the possible rise in edible oil prices, which forced the government last week to slash import duties on various categories of edible oils by 10-12.5 per cent. Among the oilseeds, production of rapeseed-mustard is expected to drop from 67.7 lakh tonne to 58.5 lakh tonne. Acreage of oilseeds has declined in most states over the last year. In Rajasthan, acreage of rapeseed-mustard has gone down to 28.97 lakh hectares from 31.12 lakh hectares, in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh it has declined from 10.24 lakh hectares to 8.36 lakh hectares, in Uttar Pradesh it has gone down from 10.21 lakh hectares to 7.7 lakh hectares. In mustard-growing areas, farmers have grown wheat and chana following a bullish trend in these commodities. Production of groundnut is expected to decline marginally from 18.5 lakh tonne to 18.4 lakh tonne. The production of sunflower is expected to decline from 10.6 lakh tonne to 9 lakh tonne. The production of safflower seed is likely to decline from 2.1 to 2 lakh tonne while that of linseed could decline from 2 to 1.7 lakh tonne. However, the production forecast of sesame seed continues to be at last year's level of 1.8 lakh tonne.