NEW DELHI, May 10 (Reuters) - India's refined palm oil imports are likely to have fallen in April from March as prices rose and buyers had built up plenty of stock, traders surveyed by Reuters said.
Compared with a year ago, however, imports of the refined product are forecast to have risen a whopping 414 percent after tax changes by exporter Indonesia made crude palm oil less attractive.
The Solvent Extractors Association of India, a Mumbai-based trade body, is set to issue vegetable oil import data on Friday at a meeting that starts at 1230 pm local time.
India, the world's largest vegetable oil importer, buys mainly palm oils from Indonesia and Malaysia, and its demand can affect prices.
Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, altered taxes in October 2011 to make exports of refined oil more attractive than those of crude palm oil to promote its downstream industry.
Since November, India's refined palm oil imports have risen by 78.3 percent to 821,960 tonnes through to March.
Indian refiners' calls for retaliatory action from the government to the Indonesian move, which has reined in domestic refining and put many plants on the verge of closure, have so far proved fruitless as food inflation is high. [ID:nL4E8E51LY]
Traders' forecasts for imports of refined palm oil in April ranged between 100,000 and 175,000 tonnes, with the average at 134,000 tonnes, down 28.3 percent from March.
They also said imported refined palm oils were $40-45 per tonne costlier in April than March.
"High prices dented imports of refined palm oil," said Pradip Desai, a Mumbai-based trader.
Benchmark July palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.4 percent to close at 3,349 ringgit ($1,093) per tonne on Thursday. The market has gained nearly 5.5 percent so far this year. [ID:nL4E8GA3YY]
Imported refined palm oil was quoted at around $1,160 per tonne on a cost and freight basis on India's west coast.
About half of India's 15 million to 16 million tonnes per year of edible oils demand is met via imports. It also buys small quantities of soyoil from Argentina and Brazil.
Traders said higher imports of the refined palm oil over the average of 90,000-100,000 tonnes in 2011 would continue as long as the government did not introduce protective measures.
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