PRESENT STATUS OF EDIBLE OIL CONSUMPTION AND HOUSEHOLDDEMAND PROJECTION FOR TAMIL NADU (INDIA)

Until the 1990s the major edible oil consumed in Tamil Nadu statewas peanut and sesame oil. The technological, economic and policy changesthereafter induced dynamism in consumer demand for food, including edible oils.In this study, the household demand for individual edible oils based on presentconsumption was assessed and forecasted for 2015 and 2020 for Tamil Nadu.Due to constraints in the secondary data published by National Sample SurveyOrganisation (NSSO), the primary data was used. The Almost Ideal DemandSystem (AIDS) model was employed to estimate the income (expenditure)elasticities and in turn used to project the demand for edible oils and associatedproducts like ghee and butter. The overall edible oil demand is expected to growat 7.0% per annum in Tamil Nadu, with the highest growth of sunflower oil(8.7%) followed by other oils (7.8%), sesame oil (6.6%), peanut oil (6.6%) andpalm oil (3.1%). The demand for total edible oil in rural Tamil Nadu increasesfrom 3.14 lakh tonnes (2009-10) to 5.3 lakh tonnes (2020), whereas, in urbanareas, it increases from 3.24 lakh tonnes to 5.45 lakh tonnes. The non-traditionaloil like sunflower oil and other oils (soybean, corn, rice bran, palm oil) has madeinroads in the consumption basket and will continue to dominate in the future.Hence, concerted efforts like increasing seed replacement rate, increasing theintensity of adoption of improved technology and appropriate price policy arerequired to increase productivity of non-traditional crops besides promotingtraditional crops (peanut and sesame) to meet the growing edible oil demand inthe state.