India said it has capped sugar exports to safeguard its own supplies and ease inflation, days after a ban on wheat shipments sent global prices soaring in the wake of the Ukraine war.<\/p>\n

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India — which according to the International Sugar Organization is the world’s second-largest sugar producer and exporter after Brazil — said on Tuesday that shipments would be limited to 10 million tonnes for the current marketing year to September.<\/p>\n

The decision was taken “with a view to maintain the domestic availability and price stability during the sugar season,” the food ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sugar exports are forecast to hit a record high this marketing year, with contracts signed for around nine million tonnes, and 7.8 million tonnes already shipped, it said.<\/p>\n

Citing inflation and its own food security needs, in mid-May India banned any new wheat exports without government approval after the hottest March on record — blamed on climate change — hit harvests.<\/p>\n

Although India is a marginal player on the global market, the move sparked a further surge in already-soaring global food prices since Russia’s February invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, which previously accounted for 12 percent of global exports.<\/p>\n

The decision also stoked fears of growing protectionism in the wake of the conflict.<\/p>\n

The export ban also left hundreds of thousands of tonnes of wheat stranded at a major port in western India, with long lines of thousands of trucks waiting to unload.<\/p>\n

Authorities stressed that government-to-government requests for wheat from other countries reeling from record high prices would be permitted.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesia temporarily halted palm oil exports and Malaysia banned chicken exports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India said it has capped sugar exports to safeguard its own supplies and ease inflation, days after a ban on wheat shipments sent global prices soaring in the wake of the Ukraine war. India — which according to the International Sugar Organization is the world’s second-largest sugar producer and exporter after Brazil — said on Tuesday that shipments would be limited to 10 million tonnes for the current marketing year to September. The decision was taken “with a view to maintain the domestic availability and price stability during the sugar season,” the food ministry said in a statement. Sugar exports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,562],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-yeswecantv-news"],"yoast_head":"\n