Palm oil imports in January reached a four-month high as buyers scale back soybean oil purchases

According to dealer estimates, palm oil imports rose to 766,000 tonnes last month – the highest since October 2025 – from 507,204 tonnes in December. | Photo credit: REUTERS/AJENG DINAR ULFIANA

Higher palm oil imports by India, the world’s biggest buyer of vegetable oils, could help reduce inventories in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, supporting Malaysian palm oil futures while putting pressure on U.S. soybean oil futures.

According to dealer estimates, palm oil imports rose to 766,000 tonnes last month – the highest since October 2025 – from 507,204 tonnes in December.

Meanwhile, soybean oil imports fell 45% to 280,000 tonnes, the lowest level since June 2024, and sunflower oil imports fell 23% to 269,000 tonnes, according to estimates.

India’s total edible oil imports fell 3.5% in January from a month earlier to 1.32 million tonnes due to lower imports of soya oil and sunflower oil, the estimates showed.

The estimates do not include duty-free shipments arriving from Nepal through land borders, the dealers said.

India imported an average of about 632,000 tonnes of palm oil every month during the marketing year ending in October 2025, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said. The group will publish its January import data in mid-February.

Palm oil is trading at a discount of more than $100 per tonne to soybean oil, encouraging Indian buyers to increase their purchases and scale back soybean oil purchases, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at edible oil trader GGN Research in Rajkot, Gujarat.

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

Palm oil imports are expected to rise further in February, with soybean oil and sunflower oil imports remaining under pressure, said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO of Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy firm.

Published on February 3, 2026