India Cancels Soybean Oil Shipments Amid Rising Costs

India, the world's largest importer of edible oil, has canceled additional soybean oil shipments due to a significant increase in costs compared to alternatives. According to Jin10, Aashish Acharya, Vice President of Patanjali Foods, one of India's top buyers, stated that the premium of soybean oil over palm oil has widened, leading to the cancellation of approximately 25,000 tons of shipments from Russia and about 6,000 to 8,000 tons from South America. The Russian shipments were initially scheduled to arrive in India by late March or early April, while the South American supplies were intended for the period from April to July. Several vegetable oil traders have confirmed this development, which adds to a series of recent defaults by the country's traders. Last week, India canceled around 70,000 tons of South American soybean oil. In January, at least 35,000 tons of orders were withdrawn due to increased import costs driven by the depreciation of the rupee. In December of the previous year, buyers canceled or delayed over 100,000 tons of Argentine transactions.