New Delhi: India will next year resume exporting raw sugar to China after a decade long gap, as it eyes overseas markets to shed surplus stocks that have muted prices and created financial distress in mills.
India plans to export two million tonnes of sugar to China to cut trade deficit with the neighbouring country, a government statement said.
“Export of raw sugar from India to China will begin early next year. A contract for exporting 15,000 tonnes of raw sugar has been entered to by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and COFCO, a Government of China run public sector company,” the Commerce Ministry said in the statement. India plans to export two million tonnes of raw sugar to China beginning from next year, it added.
“Raw sugar is the second product after non-basmati rice that China will import from India. It is a move to reduce the $60 billion trade deficit that China has with India,” the statement said.
India’s export to China in 2017-18 amounted to $33 billion, while imports from China stood at $76.2 billion. India produced a record 32.5 million tonnes of sugar in the 2017-18 marketing year and the output is estimated to be around same level or slightly lower in the current marketing year.