Govt refuses to hike minimum selling price of sugar; export boom

Addressing the 87th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), Pandey said that the country has seen significant improvement in the overall blending of ethanol with petrol. In FY2011, it crossed the target of 8.5 per cent to 8.1 per cent. This year, Pandey said, it may go up further to 10 per cent.

Pandey asked sugar mills to increase storage capacity for ethanol, adding that they can supply it regularly to oil marketing companies.

“We have seen that in the last about five-six years the direct export support has largely been around 13,000 crores directly to the industry. And the matter did not end here. Buffer stock support was also being given by the government. When prices were falling, the concept of Minimum Selling Price (MSP) was introduced to arrest the falling prices. He was also a huge support to the industry at that time,” he said, adding that the news agency PTI Reported.

India’s sugar exports rose to 7 million tonnes in the 2020-21 marketing year (October-September), a major improvement from the 6.3 lakh tonnes exported in 2017-18. In FY21, around 20 lakh tonnes of sugar was used for ethanol production.

About 35 lakh tonnes of sugar has been contracted for export so far in FY22, Pandey said, adding that it may touch 50-60 lakh tonnes this year. India can use a total of 3.5 million tonnes for ethanol production this year.

By 2025, Pandey said the target should be to divert around 6 million tonnes of sugar, which is usually surplus in the Indian context. He said the domestic sugar demand remained stable around 2.6 million tonnes.

According to ISMA, India’s sugar production may remain stable at 31 million tonnes in the FY 2012 marketing year. The total availability could reach 39.5 million tonnes, including an opening stock of 8.5 million tonnes.

with PTI input

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