NEW DELHI: In a slew of decisions to boost agriculture export, the government on Wednesday decided to free sugar export to help mills clear cane arrears of over Rs 10,000 crore to farmers, and set up an expert panel to formulate a policy to handle surplus foodgrains in view of storage crunch.

In a meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh, the government also decided to scrap minimum export price of onion, a step that will fetch more income to growers. "Sugar exports are freed and it is brought under open general license scheme. There will be no quantitative restriction and we will stop exports when it touches a particular level," a source said.

The Food Ministry has been following a policy of allotting export quota to mills on average output in last three years. The Centre has allowed 2 million tonnes of exports this year. The meeting follows agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's letter to Singh raising objections to policies on commodities such as sugar and milk products.