Vegetable Oil Data Collection: Monitor Imports Too |
The speculative instinct of the country’s vegetable oil trade and industry is well known. Its risk appetite is whetted by a combination of chronic shortage, lack of timely and reliable data, and reactive and often delayed policy intervention.
Data drought: Speculators thrive on information arbitrage in the absence of timely data relating to production, processing, export, import, and distributive trade. Perhaps the only piece of information publicly available every day is the market price. Policymakers often decide market intervention measures based on price movement alone that often prove inadequate.
Liberalisation is not a licence: Ironically, in our country liberalisation is mistaken for a licence, not realising that liberalisation comes with an unstated duty to behave responsibly and with discipline. After years, the Centre seems to have woken up to this reality.
Transparency: In order to strengthen transparency and data-driven decision-making, the government has amended the Vegetable Oil Products Production and Availability (Regulation) Order, 2025.
This order mandates that all........