India prohibits sugar exports till September 2026

The commerce ministry said that this prohibition will not apply to sugar being exported to the EU and the USA under CXL and TRQ quota respectively.

Updated on: May 14, 2026, 07:31:45 IST

By HT News Desk

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India has prohibited export of sugar, including raw sugar, white sugar, and refined sugar, with immediate effect till September 30 this year or further orders. While the exports were already ‘restricted’ under the current policy, the commerce ministry has revised the policy to ‘prohibited’ in the notification issued on Wednesday, May 13.

The notification of prohibiting sugar exports came on Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Representational Photo. )

India is the world's largest sugar exporters after Brazil.

The commerce ministry said that this prohibition will not apply to sugar being exported to the European Union and the United States of America under CXL and TRQ quota respectively.

However, this prohibition does not apply to sugar consignments falling under three categories - they have been loaded onto the ships for exports; shipping Bill has been filed and the vessel has berthed or arrived and anchored in an lndian port, with its rotation number allocated by the port authority; where the sugar consignment has been handed over to customs or custodian is registered in their electronic system, with verifiable evidence of the date and time of such handing over.

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If the sugar consignments fall under any of these three categories before the prohibition notification was issued on Wednesday will be relaxed under the new policy.

Additionally, apart from sugar exports to the USA and EU under their respective quotas, some other sugar exports will also fall under this prohibition, which includes — Advance Authorization Scheme, government-to-government exports, and, consignments already in physical export pipeline.

This move is expected to give a boost to global sugar prices and may allow rival exporters including Thailand and Brazil to ship more to Asian and African buyers, reported news agency Reuters.

After India's prohibition of sugar exports, New York's raw sugar futures went up over 2 per cent, while London white sugar futures advanced 3 per cent.

The step also comes amid weakening sugar production in major growing regions after India allowed mills to export 1.59 million metric tons of sugar anticipating that the production would be higher than local need, the report said.

Now, will harsh weather conditions expected ahead due to El Nino and its impact on monsoon, the production is at danger of taking further hit.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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HT News Desk
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