NEW DELHI, Jan 5: An Indian firm said on Thursday it plans to export about 80,000 tons of white sugar by September to meet government obligations for raw sugar importers.

India allows private mills to import raw sugar duty-free against an obligation to export a similar quantity of refined sugar within a specified period.

Indian mills imported about 2.7 million tons of raw sugar in the last two years under the advance licence scheme.

“We intend to sell 80,000 tons of white sugar by September,” M. Manickam, chairman of southern India-based Shakti Sugar Ltd., told Reuters in a phone interview.

“The company has imported about 240,000 tons of raw sugar and needs to re-export it by 2008.”

Traders said despite prospects of bumper sugar output in the new season that began in October, mills which did not import raw sugar were not keen on exports since domestic prices were firm.

They also expect international prices to firm further in the coming months because of a global squeeze in sugar stocks.

London white sugar futures jumped 6 per cent on Wednesday to end at a new nine-year high.

Manickam said Shakti plans to start soon shipments of 6,000 tons of white sugar it sold to Bangladesh in November at $335 per ton free-on-board. But the company would prefer to wait for prices to rise further before entering into any new deals.

“It was the prevailing price then, but after that prices have firmed up and today we have an offer of $360 per ton free-on-board from countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh,” he said.

“Maybe we will wait and sell some more sugar in February,” he said, but did not give details on quantities or destinations.

Manickam said Bangladesh and Sri Lanka each had an annual import requirement of 50,000 tons of sugar while Indonesia and Pakistan were also scouting for substantial quantities of sugar.

Indian firms aim to export 50,000 tons of sugar to Pakistan by the end of January. But the feared lack of availability of railway wagons to transport sugar could derail some of the sales.

Traders said international trading houses had sold 20,000 tons of Indian sugar to Indonesia in recent deals, but no other details were available.

A trade official said in Hanoi on Thursday that Vietnam would allow the import of 40,000 tons of white sugar this month to help stabilize domestic markets, where a shortage has pushed sugar prices to a decade high.—Reuters