China puts Indian sugar under lens

NEW DELHI: China, which has bought around 100,000 tonnes of Indian white sugar this year, held back some supplies for tests, a senior Indian trade official said on Thursday, while another source said quality issues had been resolved.For the first time, Chinese importers have braved maximum tariffs to buy cheap Indian sugar, even though the home harvest is expected to hit a record high.

The export shipments were mainly for September and October delivery. “Several trading firms had contracted the sales to China and out of it some material was held back by the Chinese authorities over quality issues and this was being retested,” one industry official, who could not be named, said.

But another trader with a global firm said that while small quantities had been subjected to microbiological tests these had since been forwarded to customers.

He said 70,000 tonnes had already been shipped to China. Chinese buyers have contracted some 100,000 tonnes of Indian sugar at a tariff rate of 50%, assessed on imports that do not fall within the tariff rate quotas (TRQ) system agreed when China joined the World Trade Organisation.

Normally, Chinese mills and traders do not import unless they hold quotas for the lower tariff rate of 15%. This year, Beijing only granted 30% of its 1.9 million tonnes of TRQs to private companies.

India is likely to produce more than 30 million tonnes of sugar in the new season beginning in October, up from an estimated 28.3 million tonnes in the current year, trade officials said. India has so far exported 1.8 million tonnes of sugar, mostly whites, in the year to end-September.