A significant surge in the imports of crude palm oil has led to a 17 per cent growth in the imports of 300 sensitive items during the period April-October.
Total imports of the 300 sensitive items during the first seven months of the fiscal was Rs 7805 crore (Rs 78.05 billion), 17 per cent higher than the imports of Rs 6671 crore (Rs 66.71 billion), as per provisional data released by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in New Delhi on Thursday.
An official release said: "The growth is almost entirely due to a significant increase in the import of crude palm oil, but for which import of all sensitive items together show negative growth."
Imports of edible oil increased to Rs 4901 crore (Rs 49.01 billion) during the period from Rs 4016 crore (Rs 40.16 billion) in the corresponding period a year earlier.
"A significant feature of the edible oil import is that while import of crude palm oil has gone up, that of refined palm oil has gone down leading to a better utilisation of the processing capacity in the country," it said adding that imports of sunflower oil both crude and refined had gone down.
Other products, which have witnessed an increase in import during the period include fruits and vegetables, automobiles and milk products.