India’s sugar industry is eyeing exports to China and hoping for positive outcome from the talks with the Chinese delegation which is visiting the country from Thursday.
If China decides to buy sugar from India, the Indian industry hopes to export about 2 million tonnes of sugar, said traders. They said this will be a big boost to the industry which is struggling to get exports moving owing to the fall in international prices, appreciation of Indian rupee and a section of traders holding on to the commodity in the hope that domestic prices will increase.
“During the visit of two Indian delegation, our counterparts from China were satisfied with the quality, price parity and logistic advantage associated with importing sugar from India. During their visit this week, the Chinese representatives would like to assess the capability of our industry to be a consistent supplier of the sweetener,” said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Limited.
The central government has set a target of exporting 5 million tonnes of sugar in 2018-19 to manage the growing domestic stockpiles of sugar due to excess production. India started this sugar season with a bang, with export deals of more than 800,000 tonnes. “Unfortunately, the pace of exports has slowed down as the international price of raw sugar declined from 14 cents per pound to about 12.5 cents per pound while the value of Indian rupee too appreciated. So far, we have signed contracts for about 1 million tonnes of sugar,” said Naiknavare.
Delegations representing Indian the sugar industry have already visited countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
According to the industry, nearly 80% sugar export contracts signed so far have been from Uttar Pradesh while Maharashtra accounted for just about 10%.