Government mulling export of 18,000 tonnes of sugar to US, EU, says KV Thomas

NEW DELHI: The government will soon take a decision on exporting 18,000 tonnes of sugar to the US and the European Union (EU) in 2011-12 marketing season ending September, food minister K V Thomas said.

"We will be taking a decision on export of 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the EU and around 8,000 tonnes to the US soon," Thomas told reporters here.

Sugar exports to the US and the EU is made under 'preferential quota' arrangements.

In the last marketing season (2010-11), the government had exported 10,000 tonnes of sugar to the EU and 8,200 tonnes to the US.

Earlier this month, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had approved export of one million tonnes of sugar under the Open General License (OGL) scheme as the country's sugar output is expected to exceed the domestic demand by 3-4 million tonnes.

Sugar production in India -- the world's second largest producer and biggest consumer -- is estimated at 25-26 million tonnes this marketing year. The country consumes around 22 million tonnes of the sweetener annually.