Food Ministry Issues Export Order For 4.33 LT Of Sugar So Far.

NEW DELHI: The food ministry has so far cleared export of 4.33 lakh tonnes of sugar out of five lakh tonnes quantity the government had allowed in June.

The government had notified export of 5 lakh tonnes of sugar under Open General Licence (unrestricted shipments), on June 28.

In April too, the Centre had allowed export of 5 lakh tonnes, of which 51,500 tonnes were set aside for the neighbouring countries.

As sugar industry is under government control, the mills are required to obtain release order (RO) from the ministry before undertaking exports.

According to the latest official data, the ministry has issued export release order to mills for 4,33,045 tonnes of sugar till August 8.

The ministry had allocated the entire export quota to mills based on their last three-year's average production. Mills were allowed to export sugar either produced from its own units or sourced from third party.

The government has allowed export of one million tonnes under OGL in two tranches as the country's sugar production in 2010-11 has exceeded demand. Besides, prices of the sweetener in retail markets are also stable at Rs 32-33 per kg.

Sugar output of India, the world's second largest producer and the biggest consumer, is pegged at 24.2 million tonnes in 2010-11 season (October-September) against around 19 million tonnes in the previous year. The annual domestic demand is 21-21.5 million tonnes.

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) is demanding export of further one million tonnes due to surplus stock and also to take advantage of higher global prices of the sweetener.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com