After onion prices, cooking oil to bring tears; no respite in coming weeks too

Rates of soybean oil have been on an upward swing and lost 1% early this week. (Representative image)

After onion prices debacle, cooking oil is also expected to hit the grocery bills hard as edible oils have registered a northward trend due to costlier imports. Prices of almost all edible oils have increased and due to “costlier imports from Malaysia and Indonesia, edible oil prices are likely to see a further increase,” IANS reported. Rates of soybean oil have been on an upward swing and lost 1% early this week, according to a report by Kotak Securities. “Limited arrivals, and persistently rising demand for edible oil in physical market have also deterred correction in oilseed,” a Kotak Securities report authored by Mohit Vyas said earlier this week. 

On the other hand, palm oil prices have gone up by Rs 20 per litre, recording a jump of more than 35% in the last two months. Rally in palm oil prices has led to a sharp rise in the prices of other edible oils as well. “The prices of edible oils are increasing in India due to expensive imports from the international market,” BV Mehta, Executive Director of Solvent Extractors Association of India, said, the news agency reported. The country is the world’s largest edible oil importer and most of the internal demand is met by imports.

Meanwhile, India is also battling with an increase in onion prices and the same have not come down from Rs 100 per kg mark. In the coming weeks as well, the prices of vegetables are not likely to come down, RBI had said. “Going forward, the inflation outlook is likely to be influenced by several factors. First, the upsurge in prices of vegetables is likely to continue in immediate months,” the central bank said in its bi-monthly review in December. However, as the government has deployed several measures to check the same and with the arrivals from the late kharif season expected soon, vegetable prices are likely to soften by early February 2020.