Food min issues sugar export order for 1.56 lakh tonne

The food ministry has approved export of over 1.56 lakh tonne of sugar so far, out of 5 lakh tonne quantity that the government had allowed last month.

On June 28, the government had notified export of 5 lakh tonnes of sugar under Open General Licence (OGL), which means unrestricted shipments. Sugar mills need to obtain release order (RO) from the food ministry before undertaking exports.

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

According to the latest data, the ministry has issued export release order to mills for 1,56,775 tonne of sugar. The ministry had allocated 5 lakh tonne to sugar 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 is estimated to outstrip demand and the prices of the sweetener in retail markets are also stable.

Sugar output of India, the world's second largest producer and the biggest consumer, is estimated to rise to 24.5 million tonne in 2010-11 season (October-September) against around 19 million tonne in the previous year and 14.7 million tonne in 2008-09 season.

The annual demand is pegged at 22-22.5 million tonne.