MOSCOW, Dec 14: Russian palm oil imports are seen soaring this year to 240,000-250,000 tons from 158,000 tons in 2000, the information and analysis centre of Nizhny Novgorod Butter and Fat Plant, a major palm oil consumer, said on Friday.

“The reason for soaring imports is a unique situation where palm oil prices have been the lowest in the last few years until last June, and when they went up afterwards, they were still well behind other vegetable oils,” it said in a report.

“Bad sunflower seeds harvest (in Russia) has also had an impact on increased imports.”

The report said Russia had imported slightly more than 200,000 tons of palm oil in the first 10 months of this year, sharply up from 112,000 tons in the same period last year.

Unpacked palm oil, accounting for around half of imports, arrives in Russia from South East Asian countries, while the other half, in packages, is imported from Europe, essentially from the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

The report said palm oil imports would rise further next year, but did not to give an estimate.

The SovEcon think tank has said Russia’s low 2001 sunseed harvest would cause a fall in sunoil output, the country’s most popular vegetable oil, to 0.9 million tons from 1.2 million last season.

Due to short sunoil supply and growing prices, Russia will have to import 300,000-400,000 tons of soyoil and some 150,000 tons of rapeseed oil, SovEcon said.

The reminder would be covered by imports of palm, olive and other vegetable oils, it said.

Russia consumes 1.7-1.8 million tons of vegetable oils per year.

Palmoil is used essentially in soap, margarine, and confectionery industries.—Reuters