Due to a high increase in palm oil exports, India's vegetable oil imports increased 13% to 7.94 million tonnes in the first half of the 2025–2026 oil year, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA).
7.04 million tonnes of cooking oil were imported by the biggest consumer in the globe at the same time last year. The oil year in India lasts from November to October.
Value-wise, imports from November to April increased 19% to Rs 87,000 crore from Rs 73,000 crore in the same period last year.
According to a statement from SEA, of the total imports, 7.82 million tonnes were edible oils and 121,000 tonnes were non-edible oils.Soft oil shipments, which include sunflower and soybean oils, decreased to 3.85 million tonnes from 4.13 million tonnes, while imports of palm oil nearly quadrupled to 3.97 million tonnes from 2.74 million tonnes a year earlier.
India's main sources of palm oil are Indonesia and Malaysia. Russia and Ukraine are the primary suppliers of sunflower oil, whereas Argentina is the biggest exporter of soybean oil, followed by Brazil.Prices for cooking oil have increased significantly over the past year, with palm oil prices rising by 14–15% from April 2025 levels. During that time, the cost of sunflower and soybean oils rose by 17% and 22%, respectively.
According to SEA, the Indian rupee's decline of more than 9.2% vs the US dollar over the previous year increased import expenses and was "a cause of concern" for importers and refiners.
In the first half of the year, Nepal exported over 2,17,000 tonnes of refined oils to India, mostly refined soybean oil with smaller amounts of refined sunflower oil, RBD palmolein, and rapeseed oil.Vegetable oil stocks increased from 1.35 million tonnes in May 2025 to 2.12 million tonnes in May 2026. Pipeline stocks have been steadily increasing since December 2025, indicating better supply availability going into the second half of the oil year.