Key Takeaways:

India is the world’s largest vegetable oil importer, making it a critical source of global demand despite being less prominent than China in broader agricultural trade. India’s vegetable oil import dependence is structural, with domestic oilseed production unable to keep pace with the country’s large and growing edible oil consumption. Low soybean yields, limited irrigation, reliance on unpredictable summer monsoon rainfall, and fragmented farm structure constrain India’s ability to increase domestic oilseed production. India produces roughly equal amounts of soybeans and rapeseed, but domestic oilseed production remains insufficient to fully utilize crushing capacity or meet vegetable oil demand. Ind...