India's palm oil imports rose marginally to 5,90,921 tonnes in June this year, but the shipment of RBD palmolein oil showed a sharp increase, industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said on Wednesday.
India, the world's leading vegetable oil buyer, imported 5,87,467 tonnes of palm oils in June 2021.
The association also demanded the government to increase the quota fixed for duty-free import of crude soyabean oil and sunflower under the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) system to boost domestic availability.
Total import of vegetable oils (both edible and non-edible oils) remained lower at 9.91 lakh tonnes in June this year from 9.96 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.
The share of palm oil is about 50 per cent of the country's total vegetable oil imports.
On May 24, the government had allowed import of 20 lakh tonnes of crude soyabean oil and sunflower oil each at zero duty for 2022-23 and 2023-24 under the TRQ system.
