MUMBAI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - India’s palm oil imports in January are likely to rise to a record high after Malaysia, the world's No. 2 palm oil producer, fixed its crude palm oil (CPO) export tax for the month at zero percent, a senior Indian industry official said on Thursday.
Malaysia earlier this week fixed zero percent duty on CPO exports as it aims to trim record high inventory that is putting pressure on prices.
"Malaysian exporters will take full advantage of zero tax to ship as much CPO as possible in January 2013 to reduce their huge stocks of over 2.5 million tonnes," said Vijay Data, president of industry body the Solvent Extractors' Association of India, in a statement.
"India being a large importer, shall become a dumping ground for CPO and we would not be surprised to see record import."
India, the world’s biggest edible oil importer, meets more than half of its edible oil needs through imports, which largely constitute palm oil.
