Govt. of India allows 1 million metric tons sugar export amid limited surplus
NEW DELHI : Indian Government on Monday allowed exports of 1 million metric tons of sugar during the current season to September 2025 to help mills of the world’s second biggest producer export surplus stocks and help prop up local prices.
The decision could put further downward pressure on global prices, which fell more than 1% on Monday. The government has approved an export quota to strengthen the sugar sector by providing price stability and supporting 50 million cane growers, the Food Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi said. New Delhi was set to allow the exports to support local sugar prices that had come under pressure in recent months. The Food Ministry has allocated mills a uniform export quota of 3.174% of their three-year average production, which they can export directly or via merchant exporters.
According to the report, the decision to allow the exports had been speculated for the past few weeks, and it comes as a surprise for some traders, as this year’s production is expected to fall below consumption for the first time in eight years.
In India, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh makeup over 80 per cent of the nation’s total sugar production. With the lower sugarcane yields this year in these states the trade houses were prompted to reduce their output estimates for the current 2024-25 season.
The sugar production can drop to nearly 27 million tonnes, compared to 32 million tonnes in the previous year, below the annual consumption figure of nearly 29 million tonnes, according to the report citing trade houses.
“Next year’s production is likely to be quite strong, so allowing limited exports of 1 million tons is good news for the sugar industry,” Deepak Ballani, Director General of the Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association said.
India currently exports its sugar supply to countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh, and UAE. In the year 2023-24, India did not allow exports of sugar. The Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association, a producers’ body, also told the agency that the permission to export 1 million tons of sugar would help sugar mills reeling from low local prices. Sugar prices in India are hovering around their lowest level in the last year and year and a half, according to the agency report.