India to export about 3 lakh tonnes of sugar to Pakistan

New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI) With prospects of good crop yielding and higher production this season , the Government has allowed the sugar mills to export white sugar from three to four lakh tonnes.

The export is likely to be to the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malasyia and Indonesia, Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar told the mediapersons today.

The decision of permitting export is also based on prospects of good domestic output of sugar at 18.5 million tonnes around five million tonnes more than the last year. The domestic consumption has been assessed at the lower side of 18 million tonne.

The export, however, will be canalized through State Trading Corporation (STC), Mr Pawar added.

At present, the mills are allowed to export the finished product (white sugar) they processed from the import of duty-free raw sugar, permitted for keeping the sugar factories operational as the country had been facing paucity of sugarcane for past two years.

These mills are obliged to export white sugar equal to the quantity of raw sugar they had imported earlier.

The government seemed to have succumbed to the pressure of strong sugar lobby as the millers, taking advantage of good domestic crop, wanted to enter the interantional sugar market now ruling high.

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