India is one of the largest producer of oilseeds in the world and this sector occupies an important position in the agricultural economy . Oilseeds and edible oils are two of the most sensitive essential commodities. India grows oilseeds on an area of over 26 million hectares, with productivity of around 1000 kg a hectare. But self –reliance in edible oils is not in sight and the country imports almost half of its edible oil requirements.
India has a wide range of oilseeds crops grown in its different agro climatic zones. Groundnut, mustard/rapeseed, sesame, safflower, linseed, nigerseed/castor are the major traditionally cultivated oilseeds. Soyabean and sunflower have also assumed importance in recent years. Coconut is most important amongst the plantation crops. Among the non-conventional oils, ricebran oil and cottonseed oil are the most important. The Indian edible oil industry is composed of some 15,000 oil mills, 600 solvent extraction units, 250 vanaspati units and about 400 refining units.
The National council of Applied Economic Research has projected the demand for edible oils under three scenarios on the basis of per capita income growing annually by 4%,5% and 6%.Under the low growth scenario, the demand was to rise to 22.8 million tones ,under medium growth scenario to 25.9 million tones and under high growth scenario to 29.4 million tones in the near future. The edible oil industry is largely dominated by the bulk segment. Unbranded segment accounts for anywhere between 80 and 90% of the total consumption. Imports are taking place in two forms-refined and crude oil. A large part of the crude oil gets sold as unbranded oil. The share of raw oil, refined oil and vanaspati in the total edible oil market is estimated at 35%, 55% and 10% respectively.
With growing quality consciousness and plummeting price differences between packaged and non-packaged edible oils, the packaged edible oil sector will capture 50% of the market share in coming years. The packaged branded edible oil industry is growing at 12% annually. Major Players like Marico Industries is the market leader with its two main brands, Sweekar and Saffola, having 15% market share, followed by ITC Agrotech’s Sundrop at 13%. Godrej Foods has a market share of 11% and HLL’s Flora has 3%. Cargil sells edible oil through Nature Fresh and Gemini brands, Ruchi groups with Ruchi Gold and Mahakosh oil,Adani Wilmar Limited, owner of Fortune brand, National Diary Development Board's Dhara brand and other small players own rest of the packaged edible oil market.
