Exporters face contract defaults by sugar millers

Many sugar millers who had entered forward contracts in September and October before international prices increased 5-6% last month are defaulting on their export commitments to take benefit of higher prices, merchant exporters of the commodity allege.

"Sugar exporters are facing large-scale defaults on export commitments by the sugar mills from Maharashtra, which is not good for the country's reputation in the global market," said Satyajit Jagtap, president (trading) at Baramati Agro Ltd, a Pune-based agribusiness conglomerate with interest in sugar, animal feed, and food processing among others.

Indian exporters had started contracting to export sugar from August onward, much before the government came out with its sugar export policy for 2022-23 this weekend, Mills had contracted to sell low grade white and raw sugar to exporters at ₹3,250/quintal to ₹3,500/quintal.