India’s Sugar Exports Hit 5.11 Million Tonnes So Far, says AISTA

All India Sugar Trade Association has said that sugar mills in India have already exported 5.11 million tonnes of sugar in the ongoing year 2020-21 with maximum shipments to Indonesia.  

India’s sugar export touches 5.11 million tones so far this year. About 2 lakh tones of sugar is under loading and an additional 6 lakh tonne of sugar is in transit for delivery to port based refineries. According to All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA), mills in India are all set to export the entire 6 million tonnes sugar quota assigned by the food ministry in January this year. An additional 8 lakh tones of sugar has been contracted under the OGL (Open general license) route without subsidy support. 

A sugar marketing year runs from October to September. According to AISTA, mills have exported a total of 5.11 million tonnes of sugar from January 1 till August 5, 2021. 

India’s Sugar Exports: 

Of the total exports, maximum exports have been to Indonesia at 1.69 million tones so far this year, followed by Afghanistan at 6,23,967 tonnes and the UAE at 4,60,816 tonnes and Sri lanka at 3,78,280 tonnes. 

AISTA has stated that they are proud to say that the value of the sugar exported/ under the process of the shipment is in excess of USD 2.5 billion or about Rs 18,600 crores, contributing to the country’s export earnings, particularly in a pandemic year and increasing the liquidity in the hands of sugar mills to pay cane price to farmers. 

Potential Export Opportunities: 

The sugar trade body further said that India has managed to contract around 6 million tonnes of sugar without export to Iran, which has potential to buy 1.2 million tonnes. 

With the changing scenario in the global markets, it shall be prudent to find some mechanism to export sugar to Iran. This shall help India to widen its market and create a premium for Indian sugar. 

As the current marketing year is coming to an end, AISTA said there is an urgent need for a timely announcement of the sugar export policy for the next year. 

The international Market has gone up from 17.28 cents per pound on july 10 to 19.59 cents per pound on August 11, 2021, a rise of about 13.4 percent on account of weather problems in Brazil. 

Sugar Export Subsidy Status: 

Centre in May had reduced the sugar export subsidy from Rs 6000 to Rs 4000 per tonne. AISTA has also requested the government to clear the pending subsidy claims and address the shortage of containers and rise in ocean freight. Many export subsidies of previous years have not yet been settled. These claims may kindly be settled and paid expeditiously as mills will require funds before the start of the season.