EGoM meet on sugar postponed for November 22

21 Nov 2011 Evaluate

The Empowered Group of Ministers’ (EGoM) meeting on food, which was scheduled for today to decide on granting permission for sugar exports has been postponed and is expected to be held on November 22. Last week, the Food Minister, K V Thomas, had said that the EGoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would meet on November 21 to decide on sugar exports in 2011-12 marketing year (October-September), which started last month.

As per the senior food ministry official, the EGoM meeting has been postponed for tomorrow, because the food ministry had yet not firmed up its proposal on the quantity of sugar that mills will be allowed to export. The sugar industry has been demanding permits for the export of 4 million tonnes of sugar in the 2011-12 marketing year, because India’s sugar production is estimated at 25-26 million compared to annual domestic demand of 22 million tonnes.

In the last marketing year, the government has allowed 2.6 million tonnes of exports, of which 1.5 million tonnes was through Open General Licenses in three equal tranches. For the current marketing year, industry is seeking an early decision on the sugar export policy as global prices are softening and further delay in announcing the policy would make exports unviable.

India’s sugar production rose to 24.3 million tonnes in 2010-11 from nearly 19 million tonnes in the previous year.  In the 2011-12 marketing year, the government had estimated India’s sugar production at 25 million tonnes, whereas the industry has estimated production at 26 million tonnes.

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