Palm oil import

Palm oil import

Subject: Economy

Context: Requesting the Government to withdraw its decision to freely allow the import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) has said such a decision would kill the domestic refining industry and will have serious repercussions on farmers

Concept:

• The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had placed the import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil under the ‘Restricted List’ from Jan. 8, 2020.
• It greatly helped domestic edible oil refiners to increase their capacity utilisation by processing larger quantities of crude palm oil.
• Import of RBD palmolein dropped from 27.3 lakh tonnes during the oil year November-October 2018-19 to 4.21 lakh tonnes.
• The ‘opening up’ by freely allowing import of RBD palmolein and RBD palm oil will have serious repercussions for both domestic refiners and farmers as this will have a dampening effect on the prices of domestic oilseeds.
• Refined oil import will surely send the industry to the door of bankruptcy as we have seen in the past with so many refineries.
• Allowing free import of refined palm oils will not bring down prices.