Cooking oils to get cheaper by next week as brands cut MRPs by up to Rs 20 a litre

Bringing some respite to boiling kitchen budgets, edible oil brands are slashing the maximum retail prices (MRP) of sunflower, soybean, mustard, and palm oil by as much as Rs 20.

The price cuts come from international prices cooling a bit and on the back of government interventions to ease domestic prices. India imports 60 percent of its edible oil requirements.

Gemini Edibles & Fats, which sells the Freedom and Gemini brand of oils, has slashed the MRP of its branded sunflower oil by Rs 20 to Rs 200. The company said that it was cutting sunflower oil prices for now since those saw the steepest hikes, especially due to the Ukraine-Russia war cutting off global supplies from the two largest producers of sunflower oil.

The sunflower oil with the reduced MRP will hit the markets in the next 5-7 days.

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Mother Dairy, too, said the MRP of Dhara edible oils was being reduced by up to Rs 15 per litre across variants, mainly for mustard oil, soyabean oil, and sunflower oil.

This, it said, was on account of “recent government-led initiatives, reduced impact of international markets, and ease in availability of sunflower oil including improved domestic sunflower crop".

One litre of Dhara sunflower oil currently retails at Rs 235, and a mustard oil pouch comes for Rs 210. Dhara edible oil variants with the new MRP will reach the market by next week.

Adani Wilmar, too, will be cutting the MRP of its Fortune brand of oils in line with market prices. Fortune's reduced MRP packs will be available for purchase from next week. A formal announcement from the company is expected next week, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Currently, one litre of Fortune Sunlite oil costs around Rs 245.

Cooking oil prices saw record levels over the past few quarters on the back of rising crude oil prices, exacerbated by the Ukraine-Russia war.

As per Bizom data, as of March 2022, sunflower oil prices had risen 29 percent compared to just two months ago in January 2022, while prices of palm oil rose by 17 percent, mustard oil by 7 percent, and groundnut oil by 4 percent.

Earlier this week, the government reduced the base import prices of crude palm oil and soy oil, among others, while in May, it allowed duty-free import of 20 lakh metric tonnes of crude sunflower and soy oil a year till 2024.