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• The pace of Indian sugar exports has not been affected by the coronavirus lockdown.
• Indian mills have now exported 4.3m tonnes sugar since the start of October, out of a 6m tonne export quota.
• The coastal refineries’ exports increased by 68k tonnes though, as India’s ports remain largely unrestricted.

Domestic Mill Exports

• India’s mills exported 583k tonnes of raw and white sugar in May, down 60k tonnes month-on-month (MoM).
• Their export pace has remained stable since lockdown started back in March, averaging around 623k tonnes per month.
• 206k tonnes of sugar has already been nominated so far in June.

• The mills exported 376k tonnes of raw sugar in April, down 3k tonnes MoM.
• 118k tonnes of raw sugar have been nominated so far this month.

• The mills were hoping their whites offtake would pick up in May as more lockdown measures were eased, but this wasn’t the case.
• Their white sugar exports were down 26k tonnes between April and May.
• 88k tonnes have been nominated so far in June.

Indonesia’s Offtake Continues

• Indonesia imported Indian raw sugar for the first time in nine years back in April.
• Their reappearance came after a change to their import rules allowed them to trade sugar with India again; they imported 172k tonnes in total.
• This flow continued in May with 90k tonnes of raw sugar going to Indonesia.

• Indonesia also imported 76k tonnes of white sugar in May.
• This is the first time they have imported any white sugar from India in recent years.

Coastal Refinery Exports

• India’s coastal refineries exported 171k tonnes of sugar May; this is MoM increase of 68k tonnes.
• No Indian ports have reported any operational restrictions yet, so the refineries will be hoping this strong flow can continue in June.