The country has a carryover stock of 9 million tonnes of sugar, which would be sufficient to meet domestic demand, the Food Ministry has said.
“Notwithstanding any shortfall in sugar production during the 2016-17 sugar season (estimated 23-24 million tonnes), the total availability in India (30-31 million tonnes) would be sufficient to meet domestic consumption. There is, therefore, likely to be no shortage of domestically produced sugar in India,” read an official statement.
In the current sugar season, the production of sugar has been estimated at about 25.3 million tonnes, while domestic consumption is estimated at about 25.5 million tonnes. With exports being low at about 1.5 million tonnes, the stock position at the close of the current sugar season (September 2016) will stand at 7.3 million tonnes, which will be carried forward for the next sugar season 2016-17, it added.
Sugar futures contracts fell on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange, following the Centre’s approval for imposition of stockholding limits on sugar to rein in spiralling prices of the commodity, analysts said.The Centre has brought sugar within the purview of stock limits in order to check the inflationary tendencies in the sweetener and to reduce hoarding by wholesalers and retailers, who were anticipating a price rise due to lower on year output.