MUMBAI: Godrej Agrovet Ltd, India’s biggest palm oil producer, plans to triple domestic output as demand for cooking oil surges, a company executive said.
Godrej will invest 1 billion rupees (100 rupees = RM7.75) in the next five years building refineries to process production from more than 100,000ha of palm trees, managing director B.S. Yadav said in an interview here. That may boost the Mumbai-based company’s output to more than 75,000 metric tonnes.
India surpassed China as the biggest buyer of palm oil last year as rising incomes increased demand for fried and processed food. The country imports almost all its palm oil requirements. Palm represents 80 per cent of all cooking oil purchases, which will jump 34 per cent to a record 9.4 million tonnes this year, according to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India.
Increasing demand will maintain India’s reliance on imports for the next few years, Yadav said. – Bloomberg
Source : Business Times
