India to sell sugar to cut China deficit

New Delhi: The commerce ministry said on Thursday that 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,” said the ministry.

This is due to the initiative taken by the commerce ministry and several rounds of meetings held by officials of both countries the import of raw sugar has materialised now, it said.

The ministry said that India plans to export 2 MT of raw sugar to China beginning from next year.

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. India’s export to China in 2017-18 amounted to $33 billion while imports from China stood at $76.2 billion.

India is the largest producer of sugar in the world with 32 MT production in 2018.

India produces sugar of all three grades — raw, refined and white.

Indian sugar is also of a high quality and is Dextran free because of the minimum time taken from cut to crush.

“India is in a position to become a regular and dependable exporter of high quality sugar in significant volumes to China,” said the ministry.