India allows upto 200,000 tonne sugar for exports.

NEW DELHI: India has allowed export of 150,000 tonnes to 200,000 tonnes of sugar that was imported by millers but could not be shifted out of the port due to a shortage of railway wagons, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said.

"We had requested the railways to give priority to fertilisers to help farmers in planting. But mills started complaining that sugar at the port was getting spoilt," Pawar told reporters. He said India's ban on export of sugar and wheat would continue, at least for the time being.

Earlier this week, sources said the world's top consumer and second-largest sugar producer might export 320,000 tonnes of the sweetener to Pakistan, its first shipment to the neighbouring country in two years, as local output was set to rise after higher cane planting and good monsoon rains.

Indian millers had asked the government to allow exports of about 750,000 tonnes of imported sugar, which has piled up at a key port due to a shortage of railway wagons.

India had imported large quantities of sugar last year and the beginning of 2010 as local output had fallen sharply after last year's drought.

This year, monsoon rainfall has improved significantly and India's sugar output in 2010/11 is likely to rise to about 25 million tonnes from 18.8 million tonnes in the year to September 2010.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com