Indian sugar companies ink export contracts for 5.5 million tonnes

Lucknow / May 4, 2021

Indian companies have signed contracts for exporting nearly 5.5 million tonnes (MT) of sugar in the current 2020-21 sugar season.

Citing market reports, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) today said 5.5 MT of export contracts inked so far was more than 90 per cent of the total Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) for 2020-21.

Out of this quantity, more than 2.5 MT of sugar has already been physically exported during Jan-Mar 2021 under the MAEQ programme, which was announced on December 31, 2020.

Another (one) MT of sugar was estimated to have been shipped out in April 2021, taking the total exported quantity to 3.5 MT so far. Another nearly (one) MT of sugar is expected to be exported in May 2021, an ISMA note said.

To support sugar exports, the Centre had allowed the swap between MAEQ and domestic sales quota for the current 2020-21 season, which received positive response from millers. So far, more than a MT of reallocations has been done.

On the ethanol front, against a total letter of intent (LoI) quantity of nearly 3.26 billion litres (BL), about 3.03 BL have been contracted for and 1.18 BL of ethanol supplied as on April 19, 2021. Out of this, about 77 per cent pertained to ethanol made from sugarcane juice/B-heavy molasses.

“The country, on an average, has achieved a blending percentage of 7.36 per cent, while 11 major states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have achieved even higher blending percentage of up to 10 per cent,” ISMA claimed.

Meanwhile, Indian sugar mills have produced almost 30 MT of sugar between October 2020 and April 2021, which is 4.1 MT higher than about 25.9 MT produced in the corresponding period last year. However, compared to 112 mills which were crushing cane on April 30, 2020, 106 units are operational this year.

In Maharashtra, sugar production till April 30 was 10.56 MT compared to 6.1 MT last year. In the current 2020-21 season, 167 sugar mills have closed their operations and 23 mills are still operating. Most of the operating mills are expected to close in 15–20 days.

UP mills have produced 10.56 MT of sugar, which is a 1.1 MT lower than 11.65 MT achieved last year in the corresponding period. Out of 120 state mills, 75 mills have ended their crushing, while the remaining mills are expected to close by the end of May 2021.

Besides, sugar mills in other sugarcane producing states including Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Odisha also contributed to the domestic production.


Last month, ISMA had claimed ‘night curfew’ and controlled lockdown in some states to control rising second wave of Covid-19 pandemic would have a minimal impact on the sugar supply chains and exports.

According to ISMA, the “conditions are somewhat different, as restrictions are more organised and directives including standard operating procedures are already in place, due to which disruption in supply chain is expected to be minimal.”

(Virendra Singh Rawat is a Lucknow based journalist, who writes on contemporary issues of industry, economy, agriculture, infrastructure, budget etc)