Meeting 5-mn tonne sugar export target seems tough due to global volatility

Efforts are on to increase shipment to Bangladesh, China and Malaysia; the Middle East turns out to be the largest buyer so far

India is finding meeting the 5-million-tonnes sugar export target difficult and is likely to miss it this year due to sharp volatility in global prices, though the rupee's movement against the dollar make its exports intermittently viable.

Industry sources said that the recent spurt in global sugar prices has made India’s exports ofthe commodity viable. Hence, sugar factories across India have tied up for nearly 1 million tonnes of the raw sugar exports the past one month. China and the Middle East are major buyers of India’s raw sugar.

The momentum, however, is unlikely to continue going forward, due to