Import licences for 1.1 MT of refined palmolein from Indonesia

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued import licences for 1.1 million tonnes of refined palmolein sourced from Indonesia. This comes as a surprise to the industry as only last month New Delhi restricted imports of the commodity.

According to the industry insiders, this move is a sign of retaliation against top supplier Malaysia after its criticism of actions in Kashmir and a new citizenship law. Allowing large-scale imports of refined palmolein defeats the purpose of putting the commodity in the restricted list for imports,” said BV Mehta, executive director of Mumbai based trade body the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA).

The body also pointed out that in January, New Delhi’s palm oil imports fell 27% from a year ago to 594,804 tonnes, partly due to the restriction on imports of refined palm oil. Palm oil makes up almost two-thirds of India’s total imports of edible oil. India is the world’s biggest palm oil importer.