India likely to impose ceiling on next season’s sugar exports

REUTERS: India is likely to impose a ceiling on sugar exports for a second straight year starting this October, aiming to ensure ample domestic supplies and keep a lid on local prices, industry and government sources said yesterday.

India, the world’s biggest sugar producer, could cap exports of the sweetener at six million to seven million tonnes in the 2022/23 October-September season, about one-third less than the total to be shipped out in the current season, industry and government sources said. They asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak to media.

A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The curbs on exports by India, also the world’s second-biggest sugar exporter, could further lift benchmark white sugar prices, which are already trading near 5-1/2-year highs, traders said.

July raw sugar rose 1.88 percent to 18.93 cents per lb and August white sugar jumped 1.77 percent to US $ 568.70 a tonne after the Reuters report.

Meanwhile, shares in leading sugar producers such as Shree Renuka Sugars, Bajaj Hindustan Sugar and E I D-Parry (India) Ltd fell between 2 percent and 
6 percent.

Among factors underpinning global sugar prices this year are lower sugar output in Brazil, a leading producer and the biggest exporter and crude oil prices at multi-year highs. Higher crude oil prices encourage sugar mills to divert more cane to produce ethanol for blending into gasoline.