As per report India’s halt on Malaysian palm oil imports has disrupted global edible oil trade flows, with indonesia diverting supplies to feed india, malaysia rushing to tap markets left behind by Jakarta, and india substituting palm with other oils. india, the top global palm oil buyer, imposed restrictions on imports of refined palm oil last month, a move sources said was retaliation against Malaysia’s criticism of New Delhi’s actions in kashmir and a new citizenship law.
Furthermore traders had also held off buying crude palm oil from Malaysia. Malaysia’s latest palm export data revealed the impact of India’s restrictions, with shipments to india in january falling 85% from a year earlier to 46,876 tonnes, the lowest since 2011. india accounted for nearly a quarter of Malaysia’s total palm oil exports last year, and has been the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil for five years.
Moreover it was stated that to compensate, malaysia dialed up shipments to other destinations, with exports to pakistan, saudi arabia and ghana markets that have traditionally bought heavily from indonesia all increasing in january by more than 100% from the same month in 2019.
