April 11 (Reuters) - India's palm oil imports fell about 2.5% in March from the previous month to stand at 485,354 metric tons, a trade body said in a statement on Thursday.

Imports of soyoil rose 26.4% to 218,604 tons, those of sunflower oil were up about 50% at 445,723 tons, while total vegetable oil imports gained over 23% to 1.2 million tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said. (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)