Food crisis: After banning wheat exports, India may limit sugar outflow to 10 MT
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After banning wheat export, India may limit sugar export also to keep prices in check at home, in fresh signs that the world may descend into a grim food crisis and inflated prices of essential commodities in the months ahead.
In April, as the inconclusive Russian invasion of Ukraine prolonged, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned that 104 countries, with a combined population of 1.7 billion, faced food, fuel, and finance shortages. He also warned of looming famine in many countries.
Sri Lanka is fighting to keep a civil war at bay. Pakistan may default in June. Egypt is also heading into an economic meltdown, according to the media reports.
India, already facing inflationary trends, had just cut taxes on fuels and banned wheat export to contain price rise.
On Tuesday, after reports of curbs on sugar exports surfaced, shares of sugar companies plunged sharply.
They aim the fresh move to curb sugar export at preventing a surge in domestic prices. But it may also be a new risk to global food prices.
According to reports, the government may cap sugar exports at 10 million tonnes (MT) for the year ending September 2022. This would be the first such restriction in the last six years.
Last year, India, the world’s largest sugar producer, and second-largest exporter after Brazil, produced 35.5 MT of sugar.
The India Sugar Traders Association termed limiting exports as a “precautionary step.”
India had agreements to export 8 MT of sugar, against about 9.5 MT production in the 2021-22 season.
Between October 2021-April 2022, sugar exports increased by 64 percent to 71 lakh MT because of better demand in global markets, industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on May 19. In the corresponding period last year, India exported 43.19 lakh tonnes of sugar.
Sugar production rose by 14 percent from 304.77 lakh in the 2021 season to 348.83 lakh tonnes until May 15 of the current marketing year starting in October 2021. The sugar marketing year runs from October to September.
The food ministry said India exported 75 lakh tonnes of sugar until May 18 in the current marketing year ending September. “Export of sugar in the current sugar season 2021-22 is 15 times the export as compared to export in sugar season 2017-18,” it added.
Major countries importing Indian sugar are Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the UAE, and the African nations.
The average retail price of sugar in India is about Rs 41.50 per kg and may remain between Rs 40 and 43 per kg in the coming months.
