Leading edible oil manufacturers in the country have agreed to further reduce prices, after the central government met with representatives of companies earlier today and urged them to cut prices following softening global trends.
A top government official told Business Today TV that prices of edible oils in India could fall by around 10-15 per cent. “We made it clear that with global prices of various edible oils falling in the past one month, manufacturers should pass on the reduction to Indian consumers without any delay,” he said.
Sources in the edible oil industry said prices of different edible oils have fallen by $350-450 per tonne in the past one month. India imports over 60 per cent of its annual edible oil consumption including palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine among others.
Sources added that the meeting convened by Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, was attended by industry representatives including the SEA.
Edible oil prices in the Indian retail market had started easing since last month, with Adani Wilmar and Mother Dairy reducing the maximum retail price for different varieties of cooking oils by Rs 10-15 per litre. As per government data, the average retail prices of packaged edible oils has eased slightly, except for groundnut oil, across the country in June to between Rs 150-190 per kg.
The country’s import of edible oils remained almost flat at 131.3 lakh tonnes during the 2020-21 marketing year, but in value terms, inwards shipments rose 63 per cent to record Rs 1.17 lakh crore, according to data compiled by the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA).
Also Read: RBI announces slew of measures to enhance forex inflows as rupee tumbles
Also Read: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, RCP Singh resign from Union Cabinet