New Delhi: India saw a significant increase of 34.11% in palm oil imports in April, reaching 684,000 tonnes, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA).

This surge was fuelled by a decline in global prices, SEA noted.

Palm oil constituted 52% of India's total edible oil imports for April, which stood at 1,304,409 tonnes.

Further, sunflower and soybean oils imports amounted to 620,315 tonnes.

The vegetable oil imports witnessed an increase of 26 percent in April to 13,18,528 tonnes against 10,50,189 tonnes a year ago, it said. This rise also includes non-edible vegetable oils.

Bearish global prices encouraged higher imports of refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palmolein and crude palm oil (CPO), which declined by nearly USD 100 a tonne last month, SEA said.

Soybean oil prices saw a decrease of USD 40 per tonne globally, whereas the sunflower oil price saw a more modest decline of USD 15 per tonne in the past month, as noted.

Regarding palm oils, imports of RBD palmolein increased to 124,228 tonnes compared to 112,248 tonnes in the same period last year. CPO (crude palm oil) shipments rose by 36 percent to 536,248 tonnes from 393,856 tonnes, and imports of crude palm kernel oil surged almost six-fold to 23,618 tonnes from 3,990 tonnes.

In terms of soft oils, soybean oil imports rose sharply to 385,514 tonnes from 262,455 tonnes, while sunflower oil imports decreased slightly to 234,801 tonnes from 249,122 tonnes.

According to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), as of May 1, India had accumulated 22.45 lakh tonnes of edible oil reserves.

India maintains its position as the largest importer of edible oils globally. Indonesia and Malaysia serve as the primary sources of RBD palmolein and CPO (crude palm oil), while soybean oil is sourced from Argentina and Brazil, and sunflower oil is imported from Russia, Romania, and Ukraine.