Is a World Price Influencing Indian Vegetable Oil Market? Evidence from Historical Prices

India is one of the leading producers and consumers of vegetable oils in the world. The integration of ’India’s edible oils markets with international oil markets (Rotterdam market) is studied with the overall objective of establishing long-run relationship and direction of causality. Keeping in view of the quantum of arrivals, five major domestic wholesale markets and one international market each for groundnut, soybean, and sunflower were selected. Johansen’s cointegration test revealed the prevalence of long-run relationships across the markets. In the case of groundnut oil, Rotterdam market prices are influenced by only Delhi market, whereas all selected domestic markets influence the latter. The results of causality in soybean markets confirmed a unidirectional relationship between all the domestic markets with the international market except Jaipur market, which has a bidirectional relationship with the international market. Hyderabad and Vijayawada sunflower market prices influenced the international market. The suggested policy intervention is to strengthen market intelligence for farmers by establishing online market analysis and dissemination system. The development/strengthening of market infrastructure, including communication, transportation, and storage networks, is mandatory to fully integrate the markets.

Market integration occurs when prices among different locations exhibit similar patterns over an extended period.

The integration of ’India’s edible oils markets with international oil markets (Rotterdam market) is studied with the overall objective of establishing long-run relationship and direction of causality.

The development/strengthening of market infrastructure, including communication, transportation, and storage networks, is mandatory to fully integrate the markets.