Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s largest consumer of vegetable oil, may slow imports in 2009/2010 amid high domestic stockpiles, an executive from Cofco Oil & Grains Co. said.

Soybean oil imports will fall 20 percent to 2 million metric tons and palm oil shipments will be “mainly flat” at 6 million tons, Wang Yinji, deputy general manager, said at a conference in Guangzhou today. Rapeseed imports will more than halve to 1.3 million tons to 1.4 million tons, Wang said. Cofco Ltd. is China’s largest grains trader.

Government reserve buying of soybean and rapeseed oil in 2008 and record imports of oilseeds this year have led to high stockpiles. Palm oil prices have risen 32 percent this year on concern about a possible oilseed shortfall, strong demand and gains in crude oil.

“It’s hard to estimate how much vegetable oils are there in the government and private hands, but I’d say the government’s rapeseed oil stockpile is at a record high, and the palm oil inventory is also quite high compared with the same time in past years,” said Tommy Xiao, analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co.

China may have a total of 450,000 tons of palm oil, while the government reserve may be holding 700,000 tons of rapeseed oil and 1 million tons of soybean oil, Xiao said. Private companies may hold more than 250,000 tons of soybean oil, he said.

“We can’t be too pessimistic on the market outside of China because of the unprecedented liquidity in the market,” Cofco’s Wang said. “But there are supply pressures inside china, because of high stockpiles.”

China’s soybean imports between January and September gained 13 percent to 32.4 million tons, while shipments of palm oil added 9 percent to 3.9 million tons, according to customs data. Soybean oil imports fell 5 percent to 1.8 million tons in the same time, the data showed.

--Feiwen Rong. Editors: Richard Dobson, Mike Millard.

To contact the Bloomberg News Staff on this story: Feiwen Rong in Beijing at frong2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 7, 2009 03:08 EST