New Delhi, July 22 - India's imports of edible oils will jump more than 50 percent in the first half of the crop year from November, as its summer-sown oilseed crop is set to fall 13 percent due to weak rainfall, a leading oilseed trader said.
Oilseed output, excluding castor, which is not edible, is expected to fall to 13.8 million tonnes from 15.9 million tonnes due to poor rains in western and southern India, Govindbhai Patel, a leading trader, told Reuters.
As a result imports of edible oil would surge to 3.44 million tonnes in the six months to end-April.
India, the world's biggest vegetable oil importer after China, bought 2.24 million tonnes of edible oils in the first half of the oil year that began in November 2007, against 1.70 million tonnes during the same period a year ago.
"If we consider half-yearly growth of consumption of 200,000 tonnes, we may have to import about 1.2 million tonnes more edible oil in the first half of 2008/09," Patel said.
Trade officials expect the country to import 5.2 million tonnes of edible oils in the year to October 2008, up from 4.7 million tonnes the year before.
Patel said although rains had been good in the northern and eastern parts of the country, they have been patchy in oilseed growing states in southern and western regions.
Summer-sown oilseeds like soybean, groundnut and sunflower are largely grown in six states -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Higher edible oil purchases by India impacts benchmark Malaysian crude palm oil futures which gained 0.6 percent on Tuesday, recovering from a near four-month low the previous day.
By the mid-day break, the October contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange edged 18 ringgit higher to 3,278 ($1,011) ringgit per tonne.
India imports almost half of its annual vegetable oil consumption of about 11 million tonnes. It buys palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soyoil from Brazil and Argentina.
The country harvests two oilseed crops annually -- one sown in the monsoon season beginning in June and harvested from October. The other is harvested from April, after plantings in November.