Cofco Group was the other major producer that the government met with to discuss cooking oil prices, state media reported.

BEIJING, The Chinese government has advised edible oil producers in China to avoid raising prices “unless absolutely necessary,” stopping short of a repeat of last year’s outright price cap on such products, major producer Wilmar International Ltd

/quotes/zigman/531027/quotes/nls/wlmiy WLMIY
-8.14%

said Friday.

(COFCO), China’s largest food manufacturer, and Yihai Kerry, the biggest cooking oil producer in China, have been ordered to report prices for their products at regular intervals, said the Guangdong based newspaper.

The talks mark the second time in a month for the NDRC to take direct action to control edible oil prices.

This may put some pressure on the global prices ofcrude palm oil.

On July 24, the commission held talks with COFCO and Yihai Kerry on edible oil price stability.

Soyoil retail prices have risen by 0.22 yuan a liter from their lowest point this year in early March to around CNY12.25/liter, the Ministry of Commerce said.

Also, due to the inherent volatility of prices in this segment, brands that have a diversified portfolio of edible oil categories would be better placed than those focused on a single variety.

The NDRC move aims to remove any possibility of a domestic edible oil price increase, as a rise could have a significant impact on those vulnerable to price fluctuations.

MUMBAI, July 23 (Reuters) – India’s edible oil imports inthe year from November 2012 may rise by as much as 10 percent ifpoor monsoon rainfall cuts planting and hurts yields of oilseedssuch as soybean and groundnut, the country’s leading edible oilimporter said.

However, the price curb could also hurt edible oil producers, who were planning for price hikes as a way to offset increased production costs, said the report, citing sources from the enterprises.

China’s consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of inflation, grew to 1.8 percent year on year in July, the slowest rate since February 2010, according to official data.

Rupert Dresser is a business journalist based in Adelaide, Australia. Rupert has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Rupert spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.