India is passing through an important transition and it is necessary to make the value chain more beneficial to all stakeholders involved in the sugar industry, said Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, adding that depressed sugar prices have affected cane growers with delayed payments, disturbed crop cycle and incurred loses to the sugar industry.

He was addressing the webinar ‘Sugar production- Domestic and Global’ organised by the Indian Sugar Mill Association (ISMA) on Friday. However, Pandey didn’t comment on the industry’s demand to hike the floor price of sugar.

Pandey said that the government is intervening at policy levels by facilitating transport assistance to export sugar. He said that policy to divert excess sugar to ethanol was introduced three years ago and with 20 per cent blending target by 2025 will help the industry. He said that 17 million tonnes of foodgrain surplus will be diverted to ethanol production. He added that surplus food stock in India helped 8 million population during the pandemic. “Hydrogen fuel will be a reality in near future and successful demonstrations have happened. The commercial use will be interesting,” said Pandey.

ISMA Director General Abinash Verma said that India is a structural sugar surplus producer for the last ten years. Insisting that the surplus stock needs to be sorted out, Verma said diversion to ethanol has restrictions due to production capacity and exports require subsidy.

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