Govt allows mills to export 339,000 tonne sugar

The Food Ministry has issued export orders for 339,000 tonne of sugar to mills so far, out of the total quantity of 500,000 tonne that the government had allowed for overseas shipments, in April.

Sugar mills cannot export the sweetener without a release order from the Food Ministry.

On March 22, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had allowed mills to export 500,000 tonne of sugar under Open General Licences (OGL). The decision was notified on April 19.

Out of 500,000 tonnes, 51,500 tonnewas reserved for neighbouring countries and the remaining 4,48,500 tonne were allocated to the mills based on their average output over the last three years.

According to the latest data, the ministry has issued export release orders for 3,39,187 tonne till June 1.

The EGoM had decided to allow sugar exports with a quantity restriction of 500,000 tonne as the country's output is estimated to cross domestic consumption after a gap of two seasons.

Prior to this, the government had allowed mills to fulfill their export obligation of about one million tonne.

Sugar production in India -- the world's second largest producer after Brazil -- is estimated to rise to 24.5 million tonnein the 2010-11, sugar year (October-September) from 19 million tonne in the previous year. The country's annual demand is pegged at 22 million tonne.

In the 2008-09, and 2009-10, sugar production was below domestic consumption, at 14.53 million tonne and nearly 19 million tonne, respectively. The country had to import about six million tonne of sugar to meet the shortfall.