🇮🇳 India’s edible oil imports are quietly rolling over — and the reason is not what most people think.
The Iran war isn’t just pushing crude higher.
It’s creating commercial LPG shortages across India, and that is now hitting the country’s restaurants, caterers, dhabas, bakeries, and street-food vendors.
That matters because ~40% of India’s vegetable oil demand flows through HORECA.
Less LPG = fewer hours open, smaller menus, less frying, fewer events.
That means less palm oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil being used every single day.
The transmission is simple:
War → fuel shortage → food-service slowdown → edible oil demand destruction → lower imports
India’s monthly edible oil demand could fall by 250,000–300,000 tons if the squeeze persists.
Imports already appear to be slipping:
Feb: 1.32 MMT
Mar: ~1.20 MMT
That is a major warning sign for Indonesia and Malaysia, which depend heavily on Indian palm oil demand.
The irony:
while retail oil prices are rising, bulk demand is weakening.
This is what second-order war shocks look like.
The first-order effect is energy inflation.
The second-order effect is restaurants using less cooking oil because they can’t get gas.
A prolonged Iran conflict could hit:
Palm oil exporters 🇮🇩🇲🇾
India’s food-service sector 🍛
Urban food inflation 📈
Event catering & weddings 🎉
Street food economics 🌮
This is a rare case where an energy crisis becomes temporary food demand destruction instead of immediate food scarcity.
Watch April import numbers closely.
They may confirm that the Iran war is now reshaping how India consumes food itself.
@SusanNOBULL Whenever they feel their prices are low, their minister comes and give only statement we are going B50 soon... This hearing since last more than 1 year...
Brazil's soybean harvest stands at 72% complete, down slightly v 5yr average with progress wrapped up in Mato Grosso. Slowest progress remains in eastern portions of country where rains have hammered progress in recent weeks. Overall, this is another record crop from Brazil with MASSIVE export book already in place. #Brazil 🇧🇷 #soybeans 🌱
📈Speculators' grain & oilseed bullishness has reached the levels of late March 2021 & 2022, times when balance sheets certainly looked tighter than today.
But are supplies at risk this year? Fewer corn acres? Big bean oil demand? Weather scare? Trade deals? Plenty of unknowns.
@drbrock37@Jinghe17215567 Marcos rule over fundamentals... Highest NOPA soyoil stock but virtually no effect on FOB Argie soya oil as almost entire basis covered against yesterday's CBOT fall + half of that already covered today