As many as 149 sugar mills, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, have exchanged their sugar quota of over 12 lakh tonnes (lt), until December 26 as just one week left before the window closes on January 4.

Mills are said to be getting a premium of ₹3-4/kg and found takers in factories located near ports in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The Centre on November 5 permitted export of 60 lt of sugar which need to be shipped by May 31, 2023. The Food Ministry allowed the shipments by allocating export quota to each sugar mill and also made the allotted quantity exchangeable between mills. As per the guidelines, any mill which wants to surrender the export quota will have to do so before January 4 and the quota will be adjusted with domestic sale quantity allotted every month.

For instance, a mill that exchanges the export quota will have to sell same quantity over and above its regular monthly quota in domestic market, and similarly a mill that agrees to export more by buying the quota from another mill will have to forego the same quantity (bought) from the regular monthly domestic sales allocation. The domestic allocation in lieu of exchanged export quota is also equally shared over a period so that a mill does not get pressured to sell the entire quantity in one month.

In the latest eighth round, the Food Ministry on December 26 allowed 11 mills to exchange 1.56 lt of sugar export quota with eight mills.

Meanwhile, the sugar mills have completed export of 12 lt of additional sugar quota over and above 100 lt allowed for 2021-22 season (October-September), sources said. As many as 10 lt got exported by September 30, while 2 lt could not be shipped for which the government had allowed those mills to complete the shipment by December 31, the sources said.

According to industry data, total exports by the end of this month could be around 15 lt (including about 6 lt shipped in November) after shipments began from November following the allocation of mill-wise quota. About 50 lt of contracts have already been made by mills.

Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra on December 15 had said the government would assess the overall production and demand scenario in January and decide if additional quantity to be released for export beyond 60 lt. Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, he had said the situation was comfortable and the production might exceed 410 lt in current season.

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