India imported 141.93 lakh tonnes edible oil during 2021-22 marketing year: Govt

New Delhi: India's import of edible oils increased to nearly 142 lakh tonnes during the 2021-22 marketing year ended October from 43.65 lakh tonnes in 2002-03, the government said on Friday.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said, "India imported around 43.65 lakh tonnes of edible oils during oil year (November-October) 2002-03, which increased to 141.93 lakh tonnes in oil year 2021-22."

"The domestic production of edible oilseeds increased marginally. However, domestic consumption/demand for edible oils has been increasing at a pace faster than that of production due to growth in population and improvement in the living standards of people i.e. around 10 lakh tonnes per annum," she said.

Therefore, the minister said that the domestic production of edible oils is insufficient to meet the demand and the shortfall, which is around 55 per cent at present, is met through imports. During 2021-22, domestic edible oil production stood at 116.5 lakh tonnes and imports at 141.93 lakh tonnes.

The total consumption/ demand was 258.43 lakh tonnes, the data showed. India imports edible oils mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In reply to a separate query, Jyoti said the total stock of rice in the central pool as on July 1, 2023 stood at 253.49 lakh tonnes against buffer stock norms of 135.40 lakh tonnes, which is adequate to meet the domestic requirement under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other welfare schemes.

Answering another query, the minister said that "as on July 1, 2023, the total covered capacity available for keeping the Central Pool Stock with Food Corporation of India (FCI) & State agencies is 733.12 lakh tonnes (FCI owned & hired 371.94 LMT + State agencies 361.19 LMT) against the stock position of 554.94 lakh tonnes."