A southern Indian sugar mill has sold 20,000 tonnes of raw sugar at $255-270 per tonne free on board to a US trading firm, an official at the Indian company, who could not be named, said on Friday. He said the raw sugar was to be shipped this week, but did not give the destination.
The mill has contracted export sales of about 40,000 tonnes over the past one to one-and-half months, he added. "Some of it has gone to the Middle East and Indonesia. The other shipments have been sold to international trading houses," the official said. Traders said Indian mills, particularly those in southern and western regions, have recently struck deals for raw sugar with global trading firms.
They said that up to 200,000 tonnes of raw sugar has been contracted for sales over the last couple of months. Indian sugar mills are under pressure to export with huge supplies and a bumper crop expected in the new season that began in October. The country is expected to overtake Brazil as the world's top sugar producer this season and a lack of storage may force India to sell at lower prices later this year, the International Sugar Organisation said last month.
The London-based organisation forecast in a monthly report Indian sugar output in the season that began in October at an all-time high of 33.15 million tonnes, up eight percent on year. "It will be our compulsion to export 4 million tonnes in the new season, but we cannot do that by exporting to places where we do not have a freight advantage," said Chandra Shekhar Nopany, who heads three sugar mills run by conglomerate Birla Group.
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