Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has opposed any move to ban sugar export in a bid to contain price rise. Talking to reporters in NewDelhi yesterday ,the Minister said selling the sweetener in overseas markets is as such difficult in the current scenario of low global prices. There is no need to restrict export of sugar.

On reports that government may ban export of commodities like wheat, rice, maize and cotton to contain prices, Pawar said he had not received any proposal to ban export of these items.

The government had allowed two million tonnes of sugar exports in the initial few months of the current marketing year and later in May 2012 put exports under the open general licence (OGL).