India will decide on sugar exports for the 2023/24 season once firm estimates of total sugar cane production become available, the government said on Thursday.
“Government’s priority is to ensure sufficient availability of sugar for consumption, ethanol production and maintaining closing stocks of 6 million tonnes for 2023/24 season,” the Department of Food and Public Distribution said in a statement.
Reuters on Wednesday reported that India expected to ban mills from exporting sugar in the next season beginning October, halting shipments for the first time in seven years, as a lack of rain has cut cane yields.
India allowed mills to export only 6.1 million tonnes of sugar during the current season to Sept. 30, after letting them sell a record 11.1 million tonnes last season.
The world’s second-largest sugar exporter last year placed sugar in a restricted category until Oct. 31, 2023 “in order to prevent uncontrolled export of sugar and with a view to ensure sufficient availability of sugar for domestic consumption at a reasonable price,” the food department added.
Local sugar prices rose on Thursday to their highest level in nearly two years. The government allowed mills to sell an extra 200,000 tons of sugar in August to keep a lid on rising prices.
Monsoon rains in the top cane growing districts of the western state of Maharashtra and the southern state of Karnataka – which together account for more than half of India’s total sugar output – have been as much as 50% below average so far this year, weather department data showed.
India’s sugar production could fall 3.3% to 31.7 million tonnes in the 2023/24 season, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said earlier this month.
