60 lakh tonnes of sugar exports allowed

In order to prevent the uncontrolled export of sugar and ensure sufficient availability for domestic consumption at a reasonable price, the Government has decided to allow the export of sugar up to a reasonable limit from 1 November 2022 to 31 October 2023. This information was shared in an order from the Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on November 5.

The Government has decided to allocate a sugar-mill-wise export quota of 60 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar in the sugar season (SS) 2022-23. The export quota has been pro-rated among those sugar mills which operated in at least one of the last three sugar seasons by taking into account their average sugar production in the last three seasons.

All the sugar mills have been allocated a uniform export quota of 18.23 per cent of their three-year average production of sugar in operational sugar seasons.

Those sugar mills which are not willing to export sugar can surrender their export quota — full or partial — or exchange it with other sugar mills within 60 days from the date of issuance of the order.

In case mills are not able to dispatch 90 per cent of their export quota by 31 May 2023, 30 per cent of the un-exported quantity out of their allocated quota would be deducted from their monthly domestic quota of July/August 2023.

All sugar mills need to upload the details of sugar export on a daily basis on the P II system on the DFPD portal esugar.nic.in.

Sugar exports from India stood at a mere 46,000 tonnes in 2016-17, which climbed up to 6.32 lt in 2017-18, 38 lt in 2018-19, 59.40 lt in 2019-20, 71.90 lt in 2020-21 and 112 lt in 2021-22.

Talking to ruralvoice on this decision RP Bhagaria of the All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) welcomed the decision and said, “It is a timely decision.  The sugarcane crushing season has started. This decision will help the industry. The notification issued by the government is very comprehensive.”