Cooking oils become dearer in AP

Nellore: Edible oils in the State have become dearer, and the prices skyrocketed by 40 per cent to 50 per cent within two months. Thanks to the pandemic that made the situation worse where the poor are facing a difficult situation to afford the enhanced prices.

Covid situation highly impacted the prices of edible oils in the market. Experts in the field say oil-producing countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Ukraine have closed 50 pc of their units due to the restrictions for managing the Covid. Consequently, many countries across the globe are facing shortage of crude edible oil.

So, oil refineries enhanced prices. Further, China is importing huge stocks of edible oil when compared to other countries across the globe due to unknown reasons. It is importing major stocks of crude edible oil from palmolein producing countries -- Malaysia and Indonesia and sunflower oil from Ukraine, thus artificial scarcity is being created in the world market.

In Nellore, there are seven edible oil refineries in Muthukur mandal and five oil refineries in Kakinada in East Godavari. These companies importing huge stocks of palmolein and sunflower crude from the exporting countries for refining and packing and that would be supplied for trading in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Odisha.

Majority stocks from Nellore are being supplied to southern states. Consumers are facing a huge burden of enhanced prices. Now, unofficial sources say there is a consumption of 25,000-35,000 litres of sunflower oil per day and 50,000-60,000 of palmolein oil in the district per day. The enhanced prices are mounting a burden of around Rs 25 lakh on the consumers additionally per day.

"The COVID situation worsened imports from various countries and now edible oil refineries are facing a tough time. They are getting only 50 pc of indents for crude from international suppliers. There has been a sudden rise in oil prices from Rs 40 to Rs 50 per litre just within two months.

Sunflower oil which was at Rs 85-90 per litre a couple of months back is now being sold at Rs 130," said Sannapureddy Penchala Reddy of the Oil Mills' Association. He added that even palmolein also was increased from Rs 65-70 to Rs 90-92 per litre in the market.

All these edible oil refining companies are having exclusive berths in Krishnapatnam Port and they arranged a pipeline system for the transfer of crude directly from the ship to the plant using the channel, not using any surface transport for shifting the material. Customs and Central Excise officials are having offices in the port and they monitor the export and import activities.