Sugar industry has made a fresh plea for allowing exports under open general licence (OGL), especially when the international prices have surged from $690 a tonne to $760 a tonne in one week.
Representatives of Indian Sugar Mills Association and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, who did not want to be identified, told Business Standard “The government does not want to take any risk and thus currently is in the midst of collection of state wide sugar production figures. There are reports that India may not achieve sugar output target of 25 million tonnes but will be able to reach between 22.5 million tonnes and 24.5 million tonnes. The next meeting of empowered group of ministers is yet to be fixed.”
They said the industry wants the Centre to take the decision of exporting 500,000 tonnes at the earliest. Subsequently, the Centre needs to allow exports of 1 million tonnes in the next two months.
Sources said the Centre would soon hold a meeting with the state sugar commissioners to ascertain sugar production during the ongoing sugar season. “A final call on sugar exports will come only after that. About 13.5 million tonnes have been crushed till February 15,” sources noted.
Industry sources said sugar production in Uttar Pradesh is expected to be 7 million tonnes. “However, if UP mills stop crushing season in the first week of April then the sugar production will be quite less compared to the target of 7 million tonnes," sources said.
As far as Maharashtra is concerned, it was estimated to be 9.5 million tonnes but it was later revised to 9.1 million tonnes after the unseasonal rains hit the sugarcane growing areas in November last year.