As the working capital requirements of sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have increased due to higher sugar production and restrictions on domestic sales imposed by the government by way of monthly quota, the industry is trying to maximise sugar exports. As the sugarcane crushing season will soon come to an end closing possibilities of producing raw sugar for exports, north Indian sugar millers are looking forward to getting additional export quota.
The central government under Maximum Admissible Export Quantity (MAEQ) has set a target of export of six million tonne sugar for the 2019-20 season. Recently, the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) has issued guidelines to review export performance of sugar mills against MAEQ for export of sugar.
In order to encourage the export of sugar DFPD may re-allocate the un-exported quantity amongst the sugar mills, which have requested for additional quantity. According to the reports, officials have started working on a formula for re-allocation of the export quota.
“Many sugar mills from north India may be open to getting more export quota. My own mills has contracted 95% of the export quota and would like to export more sugar because our inventories are high. There is problem of storage and we will like to liquidate the stocks as fast as possible. The quality of the sugar deteriorate we store it for longer period and later have to sell it at a discount”, Vivek Pittie, president, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and director, Harinagar Sugar Mills from Bihar was quoted as saying by Economic Times.
As per reports, the UP mills have contracted 15 to 18 lakh tonnes of sugar from the 22 lakh tonnes of allotted export quota whereas Maharashtra has contracted 5 lakh tonnes of sugar from 18 lakh tonnes of the allotted quota. The delay in the payment of export subsidy by the central government is one of the reason for Maharashtra lagging in export.
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