Sugar exports may touch four million tonnes during the current season ending September, as the Government has decided to allow more shipments. This may help the industry liquidate surplus stocks.

A high-level inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, decided to away with the release order mechanism for sugar exports.

The Government has also removed the minimum export price for onion and announced a committee under the PMEAC chairman, Dr C. Rangarajan, for framing a policy on foodgrain exports. Currently, the MEP for onion is $125 a tonne.

Doing away with the release order would ensure that sugar shipments for exports move faster. The Government had earlier done away with the release order mechanism in 2008.

So far, the Government has approved exports of three million tonnes in three tranches. Of this, 2 million tonnes have already been notified and shipped out. The notification for one million tonnes, approved on March 26, is expected shortly.

Sugar production in the current 2011-12 year-ending September is expected to touch 26 million tonnes, according to the industry estimates.

On Wednesday, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said that sugar production as of April-end stood at 25.1 million tonnes, about 2.5 million tonnes more compared with the same period a year ago.

The bulk of the increase has come from Uttar Pradesh, where production has gone up by 1.1 million tonnes. Production in Maharashtra is up by 5 lakh tonnes, Karnataka by 3 lakh tonnes, while Tamil Nadu has registered an increase of 4 lakh tonnes.

As cane crushing comes to an end in UP, the industry is betting on Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka to reach the targeted output of 26 million tonnes. Crushing in Tamil Nadu will go on till September and ISMA expects an additional output of around 6.5 lakh tonnes to come from the state. The remaining 3 million tonnes will come from Maharashtra and Karnataka.

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