Staff Correspondent:

A total of 129,000 tonnes or approximately 140 million litres of soybean oil will be imported within the first week of Ramadan, which is likely to begin on 1 or 2 March depending on the sighting of the moon, according to sources from importers and Chittagong port.

Of the edible oil, 78,000 tonnes and 85 million litres of soybean oil are being imported by five tankers to the Chittagong port before Ramadan and another 51,000 tonnes will be arriving by four tankers within the first week of Ramadan.

Importers said the arrival of tankers with edible oil would ease the existing crisis of bottled soybean oil in markets gradually while traders said the crisis will not go away at the beginning of Ramadan unless these oils are marketed very fast.

Sources at Chittagong port said currently, tanker MT Champion Avenue shipped 13,000 tonnes of unrefined soybean oil from San Lorenzo, Argentina, which is currently being offloaded at the outer anchor of the port.

Tanker MT Maersk Beaufort also arrived with 13,000 tonnes of soybean oil at the port on Tuesday while tanker MT Avex is set to anchor with 15,000 tonnes of soybean oil on Thursday.

TK Group imported all of these 43,000 tonnes of soybean oil by these three tankers.

Tanker MTM Amsterdam will anchor with 5,000 tonnes of soybean oil imported by Meghna Group of Industries (MGI) on Friday. MGI will import 45,000 more tonnes of soybean oil in four tankers after Ramadan begins.

Tanker Seaways Galle carrying 25,000 tonnes of soybean oil will arrive in the port on 2 March. City Group is importing 14,000 tonnes of soybean oil and other companies bringing 11,000 tonnes.

Altogether, TK Group will import 43,000 tonnes of soybean oil, MGI 50,000 tonnes, City Group 26,000 tonnes and other companies 11,000 tonnes of soybean oil within two weeks.

Data from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) shows the monthly import of soybean oil rose to a six-year high to 117,000 tonnes in January, but only a single tanker arrived with soybean oil in the first 21 days of February, resulting in a severe crisis of the edible oil in markets.

Importers claimed the crisis would not last long as tankers carrying soybean oil started arriving on the eve of Ramadan.

TK Group director Shafiul Atahar “A rapid refining process is underway after releasing the unrefined oil. Hopefully, it will be able to market the oil very soon, thus, the crisis of soybean oil will be over.”

Besides, five large companies also produce oil from soybean seeds. Three ships with 59,438 tonnes of soybean seeds will anchor at the port from time to time.

Three more ships carrying 171,000 tonnes of soybean seeds also arrived at the port last month. Altogether, these seeds will produce at least 25,000 tonnes of soybean oil.