Indian government has asked sugar mills to register for an additional 500,000 tonnes of unrestricted sugar exports, a statement said. The food ministry would give permission to the mills to exports within three days after their applications, the statement posted on a government website showed.
The food ministry will distribute the quota among mills on the basis of their three years' average production, or two years' average output in case a mill has not been in operation in one of three years. If a mill is only a year old, the government will take into account last year's output.
Any mill set up in 2010/11 will not be allowed to export. Last week, India allowed the additional quantity of sugar exports, totalling sales under the Open General Licence (OGL) scheme to 1.5 million tonnes so far this year. India is the world's top sugar producer after Brazil. The Indian Sugar Mills Association, a producers' body, has forecast 2010/11 output at 24.2 million tonnes against 18.9 million tonnes last year.