New Delhi : India is likely to ban sugar exports in the new season, starting October 1, government officials told Moneycontrol on Thursday.
A notification in this regard can be expected in the first week of November, they added.
The sugar season starts in October of a year and ends in September the next year.
After selling a record 11 million tonnes (MT) of sugar in 2021-22, India restricted the amount of exports during 2022-23 to ensure supply in domestic markets and keep a lid on prices.
“In the beginning of the 2022-23 sugar year, the government restricted sugar exports to around 6 MT. Even this quota is being eliminated with rising prices. Our main priority is to keep domestic prices low,” an official told Moneycontrol.
Below-normal showers in the top cane-growing districts in the western state of Maharashtra and the southern state of Karnataka, both of which account for more than half of India’s total sugar output, had been as much as 50 percent below average till August this year.
While the rainfall situation has since improved with the all-India deficit coming down from 10 percent on August 31 to 5 percent on September 25, fears of a fall in production cannot be erased.
