Edible oil sector continues to rise. This is going to be the second straight year when the consumption numbers are going slightly on the weaker side. In 2018-2019 – the consumption in the Indian markets for edible oil was at 23 million tonne. In 2019-2020 it was at 21 million tonne.

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Atul Chaturvedi, President at Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), discussed consumption numbers, production, prices and what is the road going forward for edible oil.

“With the pandemic, the response of all governments across the world has been to pump in money and put stimulus in the system.

"So with so much of money chasing commodities to expect the markets to be soft is not worth considering,” he said.

He expects some moderation to happen in prices. When it will happen is a question. “However, I don’t see too much of an action on the downside happening upto March."

“The soya crop in Argentina and Brazil, which was looking like to be in trouble, seems to have rebounded. Mustard crop is also looking up, probably we will have one of the biggest mustard crops ever in our country. So all these things should moderate the prices going forward. That is getting reflected in the forward quotations as well,” he said.

“Soya oil consumption has gone up, for more than about 4.5 million tonne is what we are consuming. Palm oil we are consuming 7.5 million tonne to 8 million tonne, sunflower was not present 15 years back but now the consumption of it is something like 2.5 million tonne. So there is a definite need for relooking at the weightage and that is the reason why we asked the government to seriously look at it and give each commodity its due weightage."

“India is a price sensitive market, higher prices reduces consumption,” he said.

For more, watch the video…

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Feb 23, 2021 5:05 PM IST