India’s largest palm oil buyer, India, has higher purchases and will support benchmarks for Malaysian palm oil futures, which have fallen nearly 10% so far in 2025.
“The Indians bought palm oil because it was too expensive. But now it’s cheaper than soybeans, and the refinery is placing orders.”
Currently, crude palm oil (CPO) costs about $1,050 per ton, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF), with delivery in India in May, while crude soybeans are about $1,100, the dealer said.
Indian buyers start trimming purchases in December as palm oil prices for soybeans are above $100.
From December to March, India imported 1.57 million tons of palm oil. Cargo in April is expected to be around 350,000 tons, increasing the average monthly import volume for five months to 384,712 tons. India imports more than 750,000 tons of palm oil per month during the marketing year ended October 2024, according to the Solvent Extractor Association of India. The country’s palm oil imports may be over 500,000 tons in May and over 600,000 tons in June. Dealers say that from July to September, the average monthly rate may exceed 700,000 tons.
Rajesh Patel, managing partner of Edible Oil Trader GGN Research, said India’s stock has been exhausted due to abnormal imports over the past five months and now needs to increase imports to supplement the import volume.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it imports soybean and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
