Edible oil import falls in Jan-Feb

KARACHI: The import of edible oil notably remained low in January and February as the inventory was piled up due to high buying in the quarter ended December 31, 2014, an industry official said on Tuesday.
Faisal Iqbal, regional manager of Pakistan and Central Asian Republics at Malaysian Palm Oil Council, said traders made higher imports in the last quarter because of likely changes in Indonesian duty structure in December 2014.
“The changes were expected to increase the prices of edible oil,” Iqbal said.
Malaysia also kept its exports duty on palm oil at zero between October and December, encouraging more imports from different countries. The South East Asian country didn’t raise the duty even after December. Iqbal said the carryover stock (of edible oil) stood at 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes in early this year.
The international edible oil price, notably in Malaysia from where Pakistan makes majority of its imports, remained stable at $625 to 650/tn during the last year, he said.”The price outlook remains stable.”
The decrease in edible oil prices is directly linked with the crude oil price trend.
An industry official said a number of countries used to produce biodiesel when crude prices were relatively higher. After the freefall in crude prices, bio fuel is losing its charm, he added.
Crude oil price crashed more than 50 percent during the last one year to below $50/barrel.
Palm oil import was recorded at 162,916tns and 188,103tns in January and February, respectively, showed the data by Pakistan Bureaus of Statistics (PBS); in Oct-Dec, it was an average 213,269tns/month.
The PBS said the soybean import stood at 184tns in January and 167tns in February as compared to 1,280tns in December. An average monthly import was 1,308tns in December quarter.
Iqbal said oil refineries usually import soybean meal for poultry feed; oil extraction from the meal is mere 18 percent.
In the first seven-month of the current fiscal year (July-February), the import of palm oil was higher by four percent to 1.55 million tonnes from 1.22 million tonnes in the corresponding period last fiscal year.
Soybean import totaled 38,137tns in July-Jan FY15 from 37,395tns in July-Jan FY14.
Edible oil import may see a surge ahead of Ramazan, the official said.