of India bribe Exports in May were the highest in seven months and were up 15% in April as the country imposed curbs on Indonesian export By sourcing more commodity from Malaysia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea, five industry officials said.

buy more by Indiaworld’s largest importer Vegetable oilSupport may be provided to Malaysian palm oil prices, which are trading near record highs.

According to the average estimate of the five dealers, India imported 660,000 tonnes of palm oil in May, up from 572,508 tonnes in April.

Indian imports from Indonesia fell in May, but refiners managed to buy more from Malaysia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea, said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy Sunwin Group.

Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer and exporter, halted exports of the product on April 28 to control rising prices domestically. Jakarta allowed exports to resume from May 23 but put in place policies to protect domestic supplies.

The Solvent Extractors Association of India, a Mumbai-based trade body, is likely to publish import data for May in mid-June.

A senior government official said on condition of anonymity that India’s soya oil imports rose to 352,614 tonnes in May, from 315,853 tonnes in April.

The country’s soya oil imports may rise sharply in the coming months, as New Delhi has allowed duty-free import of two million tonnes of the commodity, said a Mumbai-based dealer of a global trading firm.

The import of sunflower oil rose to 123,970 tonnes in May from 67,788 tonnes a month ago, a government official said.

India mainly buys soya oil from Argentina and Brazil and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia.

“SunOil shipments from Ukraine have stopped, India is trying to import more from Russia,” the dealer said.