India's vegetable oil imports rose 13 per cent to 7.94 million tonnes in the first six months of the 2025-26 oil year, driven by a sharp surge in palm oil shipments, industry body the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said on Wednesday.
The world's largest cooking oil consumer imported 7.04 million tonnes in the same period a year earlier. India's oil year runs from November to October.
In value terms, imports for the November-April period climbed 19 per cent to Rs 87,000 crore up from Rs 73,000 crore a year-ago.
Of the total imports, edible oils accounted for 7.82 million tonnes and non-edible oils for 121,000 tonnes, SEA said in a statement.
Palm oil imports nearly doubled to 3.97 million tonnes from 2.74 million tonnes a year earlier, while soft oil shipments, which include soybean and sunflower oils, fell to 3.85 million tonnes from 4.13 million tonnes.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the primary suppliers of palm oil to India. Argentina is the largest supplier of soybean oil, followed by Brazil, while Russia and Ukraine are the main sources of sunflower oil.
Cooking oil prices rose sharply over the past year, with palm oil prices up 14-15 per cent compared with April 2025 levels. Soybean oil and sunflower oil prices increased between 17 per cent and 22 per cent over the same period.
A depreciation of the Indian rupee by over 9.2 per cent against the dollar over the past year added to import costs, SEA said, calling it "a cause of concern" for importers and refiners.
Nepal exported approximately 2,17,000 tonnes of refined oils to India in the first half of the year, comprising mainly refined soybean oil, with smaller volumes of refined sunflower oil, RBD palmolein and rapeseed oil.
Total vegetable oil stocks rose to 2.12 million tonnes in May 2026 from 1.35 million tonnes in May 2025, with pipeline stocks showing a steady upward trend from December 2025, pointing to improved supply availability heading into the second half of the oil year.
Published on May 13, 2026