India's duty cut on sunflower oil set to reshape its own oil import mix
- India cut the basic import duty on crude sunflower oil from 10% to zero on 23 September.
- Indian sunflower oil imports are expected to rise 30% to 3.5 million tonnes in 2026/27.
- Soyabean oil imports to India are expected to fall 10.7% to 5 million tonnes over the same year.
A tax change in Delhi could tighten the sunflower oil supply that UK buyers rely on.
Sunflower oil bought from Russia, Ukraine and Argentina is about to face stronger competition for supply. India's sunflower oil imports are expected to rise by 30% to 3.5 million tonnes in the 2026/27 marketing year, after the government cut the import duty on crude sunflower oil to zero.
Oils & Fats International reports that India cut the basic import duty on crude sunflower oil from 10% to zero on 23 September, a move aimed at lowering prices during the festive season. Reuters quoted Angshu Mallick, president of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India, saying the cut is expected to boost consumption.
India buys its vegetable oil mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina, Russia and Ukraine, the same exporters that supply sunflower oil into UK food and personal care manufacturing. A 30% jump in Indian demand draws on that supply before it reaches anyone else, and tighter availability there tends to show up in quoted prices quickly.
The shift is expected to cut India's soyabean oil imports by 10.7% to 5 million tonnes over the same year, according to Mallick. Less Indian buying of soya oil could ease pressure on that market, which matters for animal nutrition formulators and food manufacturers who use soyabean oil as a feed or ingredient input.
Palm oil imports are expected to hold steady at around 8 million tonnes, Mallick said, though purchases could be affected by rising prices linked to supply concerns from the El Niño weather pattern. That is a category touching personal care, cosmetics and food manufacturers who rely on palm oil and its derivatives.
India's total vegetable oil imports are expected to stay broadly flat at 16.5 to 17 million tonnes in 2026/27, but could rise by a further 1 million tonnes if low rainfall damages the domestic rapeseed crop. That revised buying pattern begins on 1 November, when the new marketing year opens and these shifts start to show up in the contracts exporters use to price sunflower, soya, palm and rapeseed oil for everyone else.