Sugar exports will resume next month after a small gap.
Since the sugar quota of 6 million tonne (MT) was issued in November last year, 3 MT of sweetener has been exported and by May the entire quantity of sugar approved for exports will be done by the mills.
“We are getting divergent views about the quantum of sugar production this year by industry association and in the next couple weeks we will firm our estimate on output ,” Sanjeeve Chopra, Department of food and public distribution, on Thursday said.
He said that based on estimated domestic consumption and allocation for ethanol manufacturing programme, the government will consider the second tranche of sugar exports.
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According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), about 5 MT contracts for exports of sugar have already been entered into so far. Sources told FE that the government may allow an additional 3-4 MT of shipments for the current season.
“Next month we will have a meeting with the cane commissioner and we will re-assess the production estimate of sugar for the current then will take a call on allowing additional quantities of sugar for exports,” Subodh Kumar Singh, additional secretary, department of food and public distribution said.
The country’s sugar production was initially projected to rise to a record 36.5 MT in the current year, now it is being revised to 34.3 MT because of excessive rainfall and cloudy weather conditions which prevailed in September and October last year impacting the yield.
According to ISMA, the country’s sugar output for the 2022-23 season (October-September) is estimated to be around 41 MT which includes around 4.5 MT to be diverted towards making ethanol. The domestic consumption would be around 27.5 MT.
In the 2020-21 season, sugar exports rose to 7.1 MT and in the last season exports was reported at 11.2 MT. In sugar seasons 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, only about 0.6 MT, 3.8 MT and 5.9 MT of sugar was exported.
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The government followed the maximum admissible export quota (MAEQ) in 2020-21 and the open general license system in 2021-22.
In June, the government put restrictions on the quantity for exports without restriction. This was done to avoid any shortage in sweetener supplies in the domestic market.
India exports sugar mostly to countries including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sudan, Somalia and United Arab Emirates.
The government has been encouraging sugar mills to divert sugar to ethanol and also to export surplus sweetener so that sugar mills could make payment of cane dues to farmers in time and improve financial conditions of mills.
“Because of self-sufficiency attained by the sugar sector, the government has not paid subsidies since last fiscal,” an official said.