INCREASING import costs are reported to be pushing up the price of popular brands of cooking oil in China.

Wilmar International Limited, one of China’s largest edible oil suppliers, said Tuesday that an application to increase the prices of cooking oil had been approved by the Central Government.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning body, said on its Web site that it had reviewed the application and had no objection. The company applied for a price increase of 10 percent for its packaged cooking oil products, but would not immediately raise prices, a company statement said.

Many soybean crushers had applied to raise prices because of high import costs, and the National Development and Reform Commission had delayed approval until after a two-week national people’s congress meeting that ended in mid-March.

Singapore Wilmar International owns Shenzhen-based Kerry Oils & Grains Co Ltd, which distributes six popular brands of food oil in China, including Arawana, Yuanbao and Xiangmanyuan. The Kerry company would increase the price of packaged oil products, including the popular Arawana brand, a Beijing-based newspaper reported yesterday.

The commission said in January that all major producers or processors of daily necessities, including milk, flour, rice, noodles and cooking oil, would need approval from authorities to raise prices.

On Friday, the commission approved an application from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy and Sanlu Dairy Group in Hebei Province to increase price of pure milk products by about 14 percent, earlier reports said.

(SD-Agencies)