Sugar mills urge govt to re-introduce minimum indicative export quota

Ask for an earlier scheme to be revived as prices slide after surplus production

Hit by a sustained fall in prices for their output, sugar mills have urged the central government to re-introduce the earlier Minimum Indicative Export Quota (MIEQ).

Introduced in September 2015 for sugar season 2015-16, this had allowed mills to export (the Centre has to permit any shipment) a cumulative four million tonnes (mt) of white sugar, with allocations up to a cap among mills, within a specified period. The aim was to cut surplus stock within the country. 

Within six months from its introduction, the government withdrew the scheme, amid forecasts of lower production in 2016-17. At the time, the government had