Good news for farmers, 12 lakh tones of additional sugar export may get approval

New Delhi: The Central government may allow an additional 1.2 million tons of sugar export in view of the possibility of production being higher than the estimate in the current sugar season. This additional export quota will be over and above the 10 million tons sugar export allowed earlier for current 2021-22 season.

According to sources, the additional quota for sugar exports was approved in the recent meeting of a group of ministers. Notification in this regard will be issued soon. The Food Ministry, which acts as the nodal ministry for sugar production, is working out the modalities for allocating additional quotas, sources said, adding that the country’s total sugar production in the 2021-22 season will increase by 5 lakh tons to 36 million tons is expected, which is higher than the previous estimate of 35.55 million tons.

Even after the export of additional quota of sugar, there will be a ‘closing stock’ of about 60-68 lakh tons left in the country. Sugar mills have so far exported 99.7 million tons of sugar to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan, Indonesia, Somalia and other countries in the sugar season from October 2021 to September 2022. Sources said that despite some recent improvement in the international market and fall in raw sugar prices, the global demand for Indian Sugar has remained strong.

Former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month requesting a relaxation of 10 lakh tons in the limit of sugar export. He had said that the production of sugar is expected to be higher than the earlier estimates.