Govt announces quota limits for sugar export to EU, US
The government on Tuesday announced the export quota of 10,000 tonnes of white sugar to the European Union (EU) and 8,424 tonnes of raw sugar to the United States (US) for providing benefits to exporters during the current year beginning October 2015. Traders get concessions on limited quantity of exports to these destinations under the existing CXL and Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) provisions. “Release for free circulation for the quotas of CXL concession sugar shall be subject to the presentation of a certificate of origin issued by the competent authority,” the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification. A sudden increase of sugar prices in global markets has made exports viable to some extent and with that the mills are expediting contracts for delivery during the October 2015-September 2016 crushing season. According to reports, a number of sugar mills have already signed contracts for overseas supplies through the Indian Sugar Exim Corporation, a company set up by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and co-operative mills. Most of the import orders are from countries of Asia and West Asia. With the prices firming up in the last few days, sugar mills want to take advantage by signing contracts for the maximum quantity and many of them have already finalized contracts for selling more than 100,000 tonnes. In the last couple of years, stockpiling of sugar in the country due to surplus production has become a major challenge for the government. Sugar producers have been struggling to offset their stocks in the wake of global demand slump, while sugarcane growers have been waiting for their pending payments. During 214-15, India’s total sugar production has been estimated to be around 28 million tonnes, at least 3 million tonnes higher than the domestic requirement. Between October last year and April this year, India exported 1.26 million tonnes of sugar.
October 14, 2015 | 4:12pm IST.
to success.