Sugar Exports Expected to Pick Up Pace Soon

18-Dec-2025 05:08 PM

Mumbai: The central government has allowed the industry to export 1.5 million tonnes of sugar for the current marketing season (October-September) 2025-26. The contracting and shipment process has already begun, and the pace is expected to accelerate in the coming months.

According to a leading industry analyst, although most of the sugar export volume is currently in the contracting stage and shipments are slow, the pace of shipments is likely to pick up from January 2026 as mills begin delivering the sugar against the deals already made.

It is understood that the central government may review the utilization of the sugar export quota in March 2026.

According to the analyst, most of the sugar export deals have been finalized in the last 10-15 days, so shipments may take some time. This time, sugar mills are expected to utilize most of their allocated export quota, and any shortfall will not exceed 1-2 lakh tonnes. In other words,

1.3-1.4 million tonnes of sugar could be exported from the country during the 2025-26 season. Earlier, the government had approved the export of 1 million tonnes of sugar in the 2024-25 marketing season, of which about 800,000 tonnes were shipped.

Gross sugar production is estimated to increase by 16 percent during the current marketing season. Lower utilization for ethanol production is expected to increase the availability of sugar for food purposes.

Although international sugar prices are currently low, India's sugar exports are still expected to perform well due to the softening of ex-factory prices. Brazilian and Thai sugar currently dominate the global market.