India’s edible oil imports increased by 3 percent to 16.651 million tonnes in the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA). This rise was primarily fueled by a significant increase in duty-free imports from Nepal.
In the previous fiscal year, imports totaled 16.182 million tonnes. Nepal, which benefits from zero-duty access to the Indian market under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, exported 736,000 tonnes of edible oils to India during this period, more than doubling the 345,000 tonnes shipped the year before, an increase of 113 percent.
Refined soybean oil constituted the majority of Nepal’s exports to India, alongside smaller quantities of sunflower oil, RBD palmolein, and rapeseed oil. “The surge in duty-free imports of refined oils from Nepal substantially contributed to the increase in India’s total edible oil imports during the year,” SEA stated.
According to the association, without the SAFTA framework, overall imports would likely have fallen below the previous year’s figures despite rising domestic demand. Contributing factors included escalating international prices and a depreciating rupee against the dollar, which raised import costs.
India continues to rely heavily on foreign supplies, with local production satisfying only about 40 percent of its edible oil needs. Low yields in oilseeds, fragmented agricultural land, limited irrigation, and a policy focus on wheat and rice have hampered growth in domestic production, as noted by SEA.
The association emphasized the necessity for initiatives to enhance oilseed productivity and promote domestic value addition in order to reduce long-term import dependence. Furthermore, it acknowledged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent appeal for consumers to moderate their edible oil consumption, suggesting that both decreasing excess use and increasing domestic production would alleviate import reliance and mitigate pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
Published on May 19, 2026.
