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Informist, Thursday, May 14, 2026

--Govt bans sugar exports till Sept 30 with immediate effect 

MUMBAI – The government has banned exports of raw, white, and refined sugar with immediate effect till Sept. 30, or till further orders, whichever is earlier, according to a notification by the commerce ministry and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade late Wednesday. This marks a reversal of the previously "restricted" export policy, where the government had approved 1.5 million tonnes of sugar for export in 2025-26 (Oct-Sept) on Nov. 14, 2025, after which it had approved another 500,000 tonnes for export on Feb. 13, bringing the total approved amount of sugar exports to 2 million tonnes. Prior to Nov. 14, sugar exports from India were prohibited. 

According to the notification, the fresh prohibition does not apply to sugar being exported to the European Union and the US under the CXL and tariff rate quota, or TRQ, concessions. Traders can export sugar at a relatively low or zero customs duty by availing the CXL consession on exports to the EU. Under the tariff rate quota, imports of a specified quantity of a product at a lower or zero customs duty are permited. Exports of sugar will also be permitted if the loading of the consignment on ships had commenced before the publication of the notification, or if the shipping bill was filed and the ship was berthed or arrived and anchored in an Indian port, with its rotation number allocated by the Port Authority, before the publication of the notification, it said. 

"The approval for loading in such vessels shall be issued only after confirmation by the concerned Port Authority regarding berthing or anchoring prior to this Notification; or, where the sugar consignment has been handed over to Customs or Custodian before the date of publication of this Notification in the Official Gazette and is registered in their electronic system, with verifiable evidence of the date and time of such handing over," the notification said.

If the date of prohibition on sugar exports is not extended beyond Sept. 30, the export policy will revert to "restricted", the notification said. India is the world's second-largest exporter of sugar after Brazil.  End

Reported by Shreya Shetty

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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