Festival season: Centre to hold meeting with states to discuss edible oil prices

With an eye on the festival season, Sudhanshu Pandey, secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), is expected to hold a meeting today with representatives of all the states and union territories in order to discuss the demand, availability, stock limits and prices of edible oils across India.

The government-run department said that since the demand for edible oils was different in each state and union territory, they can separately refer to the stock disclosure notice that has been issued in order to finalise their stock limits for edible oils and oilseeds.

The DFPD has also created a website dedicated to closely monitoring edible oil stocks on a weekly basis. The Centre has already taken various steps to bring down high prices, including a cut in import duties on palm oil, sunflower oil and soybean oil.

Stock limits were put in place for most traders of edible oils and oilseeds until March 31 this year in a bid to control domestic prices. The prices of oils have fallen by Rs.3-4 per kg following a recent cut in import duties.

During an 11-month spell from November 2020 to September 2021, the import of vegetable oils rose 2% to 12,470,784 tonnes compared to 12,257,837 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Of the total vegetable oils imported, edible oil imports rose to 12,085,247 tonnes from 11,950,501 tonnes, while non-edible oil imports rose to 385,537 tonnes from 307,333 tonnes.

The marketing year for vegetable oils runs from November to October.