Congestion of Ships at Kandla Port May Impact Soya Oil Import

Congestion of ships at Kandla Port in Gujarat may impact the import of soya oil as the ships carrying soya oil that arrived in India will be unloaded in July which was earlier scheduled for June.

India is dependent on imports to meet two-thirds of the domestic demand for edible oils and in such situation the delayed unloading of ships at Kandla Port can cause a shortage of soya oil in the market which can further increase the prices. A quarter of the country's vegetable oil imports come to Kandla port in Gujarat. The reason for this large share is many nearby edible oil refineries, which prefer this port for their imports. 

As per the details shared by Rajesh Patel, managing partner of edible oil trader GGN Research, imports of soya oil in June are likely to fall from the earlier estimate of 4 lakh tonnes to 3 lakh 25 thousand metric tonnes, as some ships will now be unloaded in July instead of June at Kandla port.

India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it imports soya oil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.