- Reuters reported that more Indians are switching from unbranded cooking oil products to branded ones. Companies producing branded cooking oil in India include Ruchi Soya, Adani Wilmar, Cargill and Bunge.

- Ruchi Soya said that the US$8bil branded cooking oil market in India could grow by 15% in 2015F. According to another industry expert, India’s edible oil consumption is expected to rise 5.6% to 19.3mil tonnes in 2014F/2015F.

- SGS said that Malaysia’s palm oil shipments declined by 4.6% in the 20 days of November compared with the same period in October.

- India received 30.6% fewer palm oil shipments while Pakistan’s imports slid by 34.4%. Silver lining is that China bought 106.5% more palm oil in the 20 days of November compared with the same period in the previous month.

- Soybean prices inched up last week on positive export news. USDA (US Department of Agriculture) reported that exporters sold more than 100,000 tonnes of soybeans during the week to unknown destinations.

- Soybean prices had fallen during the week due to concerns over weak demand. US farmers are nearing completion of soybean harvesting.

- According to AgRural, soybean plantings have reached 63% of areas in Brazil. This is a delay of six percentage points compared with the same period last year.

- In Mato Grosso, soybean plantings have reached 82% of the areas. The weather was dry in October and this had impeded plantings. Mato Grosso is the largest producer of soybeans in Brazil.

- Finally, Biofuels Digest reported that Indonesia’s new president had asked the European Commission to lower barriers against the country’s palm oil products.

- Although the Commission’s President said that he would take the request back to Brussels for discussions, the Commission was more focussed on concluding the economic partnership agreement with Indonesia. Currently, there is an anti-dumping duty on Indonesia’s biodiesel products.

Source: AmeSecurities