Sugar Import

India is not looking at allowing more sugar exports, government and industry officials said on Thursday

In this backdrop, the sugar mills are now pinning hopes on the prospective shipments to Indonesia to make up for the accumulating losses

There was a discussion for a two-way deal under which India will give priority to import palm oil from Indonesia against which the latter was offering to buy raw sugar from here

Units are miffed at the move as there is a lot of idle capacity in the country; sugar industry, on the other hand, has welcomed the development

Pakistan is planning to give a subsidy on sugar exports that could make it cheaper for Indian markets, necessitating an increase in imports

Sugarcane production in the next season looked good owing to favourable weather conditions: Paswan

The company is expecting the cane crushing to be up to 10 per cent lesser than last year

Last month, the government allowed imports of half a million tonnes of duty-free raw sugar

But since the refineries are situated away from the designated ports, viability may be impacted

Allowing duty-free imports of sugar was not required

Move comes as drought curtails production below consumption levels for first time in 7 years

India's sugar scene seems to be stabilising, with a fall in demand and estimates here remaining low for coming months. As a result, say sources, the government is not in a rush to reduce the import duty. The production estimate was further reduced by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma) at a meeting on Monday, from 21.3 million tonnes to 20.3 mt. Their original estimate for sugar season 2016-17 (October-September) was 23.5 mt. Demand has alsobeen falling and consumption estimates have been lowered to 23.8 mt.T Sarita Reddy, president of Isma, told this newspaper: "While production has been revised lower, demand is falling. As a result, government officials we met concurred with the industry view that there is no need to rush to allow import, as the country has enough (stock) to also meet two months' demand for the next season."Prices have also been stable for the past month, adding to the rationale for not hastening on import. After demonetisation, Isma lowered its consumption ..

Sugar prices in the local market have risen more than 10% in a month on an expected drop in production