India’s sugar exports in the current season 2021-22 grew 15 times to 70 lakh tonnes as compared with the outward shipment in 2017-18, the ministry of consumer affairs and food distribution said on Thursday.
In sugar season 2020-21, against the target of 60 lakh metric tonnes (LMT), about 70 LMT have been exported, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the major importing countries are Indonesia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE, Malaysia and African Countries.
In 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, sugar shipments stood at about 6.2 LMT, 38 LMT and 59.60 LMT, respectively.
The ministry said that about Rs 14,456 crore released to sugar mills in past five years to facilitate export of sugar and Rs 2,000 crore as carrying cost for maintaining buffer stock.
“Since, the international prices of sugar are in uptrend and stable, so, contracts for export of about 90 LMT have been signed to export sugar in current sugar season 2021-22 and that too without announcement of any export subsidy; out of which 75 LMT have been exported till 18.05.2022,” the statement said.
To address the problem of excess sugar, the government is encouraging sugar mills to divert excess sugarcane to ethanol. With the vision to boost agricultural economy, to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuel, to save foreign exchange on account of crude oil import bill and to reduce the air pollution, the Centre has fixed target of 10% blending of fuel grade ethanol with petrol by 2022 and 20% blending by 2025, the ministry said.
Till year 2014, ethanol distillation capacity of molasses-based distilleries was only about 215 crore litres. However, in past 8 years due to the policy changes made by the government, the capacity of molasses-based distilleries has been increased to 569 crore litres.
“Capacity of grain-based distilleries which was 206 crore litres in 2014 has increased to 298 crore litres. Thus, the total ethanol production capacities have increased from 421 crore litres to 867 crore litres in just 8 years,” the statement said.
