India is likely to achieve over 80 per cent of its export quota allocated for the sugar season October 2019–September 2020, following a sharp rise in global sugar prices after the forecast of a supply deficit. Sugar prices, however, have moderated in the past few days amid reduced demand in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

The government had allocated 6 million tonnes (MT) of sugar quota among 530 mills spread across in the country, depending on their crushing capacity and records, under the maximum admissible export quota (MAEQ). Of this, sugar mills have already cumulatively contracted for around 3.5 MT and transported around 2.3 MT out of their factories for exports.

To step up exports from India and eventually reduce the domestic surplus, the government has re-allocated 600,000 tonnes of quota to those mills which are equipped for exports. This quota was taken away from those unable to export.

“We will be able to achieve over 5 MT of sugar exports this year. It will be an extremely good performance. Given that the government is pro-active, the performance of sugar mills in terms of exports will be better this year,” said Abinash Verma, director-general, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).

Of the 5 MT of allocated MAEQ last year, sugar mills were able to achieve exports of 3.8 MT. Meanwhile, international sugar prices have moderated in the last few days on reduced demand amid lockdowns following the coronavirus outbreak.