Indian traders will export raw sugar to Iran for March and April delivery, five trade sources said, the first Indian sugar sales to Tehran in at least five years as Iran struggles to secure food supplies under US sanctions.
Iran is buying the sugar from India to use up the rupees it has received for oil sales to India, the world's third-largest oil user. Iran is blocked from the global financial system, including using US dollars to transact its oil sales, by sanctions imposed by the United States.
Trading houses have contracted to export 1,50,000 tonnes of raw sugar for shipments arriving in March and April at $305 to $310 per tonne on a free-on-board basis, the trade sources told Reuters this week.