Edible oil prices surge to highest level in over a decade

Prices of edible oils such as mustard, vanaspati, soya, palm, sunflower, and groundnut are more than their highest in a decade.

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Prices have risen as much as 62 percent from last year, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said at a recent meeting on the issue.

India imports about 65 percent of its annual requirement of 14.5 million tonnes of cooking oils. International prices are rising because of lower output in major producers Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina, Ukraine and Russia, mostly because of bad weather.

The prices of six edible oils — groundnut oil, mustard oil, vanaspati, soya oil, sunflower oil and palm oil — have risen between 20% and 56% at all-India levels in the last one year, data on the Department of Consumer Affairs website show.

With rising incomes and changing food habits, consumption of edible oils has been rising over the years. While mustard oil is consumed mostly in rural areas, the share of refined oils —sunflower oil and soyabean oil — is higher in urban areas.