With the prospects of the sugarcane crop yield looking bright this season, Food Secretary, Sanjeev Chopra, called on the sugar industry bodies on Tuesday to reach a consensus on their demand to allocate export quotas only to mills willing to ship from their own facilities.
“We have sought the views of the industry. They should develop a consensus among themselves, and then they should come to us,” Chopra said, and added that though he cannot comment on whether a consensus was absent, his department has not yet heard from them.
The All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA) had recently said the existing quota system, which distributes limited export allocations to all mills based on past production, allows remote or export-reluctant mills to sell their quotas to others, resulting in substantial quantities remaining unexported.
The industry also demanded an increase in the ex-mill price of ethanol from B-heavy molasses and sugarcane juice/sugar/syrup, to which Chopra said his department does not deal with the aspect of increase in ethanol pricing.
Also Read: Sugar trade body seeks revision of Centre’s export quota rules
“The committee at the level of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MPNG) examines and recommends,” he stated.
Sugar exports are currently on a restricted list, with the government controlling volumes through quotas distributed proportionally among mills. However, the government has removed restrictions on the diversion of sugar for ethanol production, allowing mills to use sugarcane juice, sugar syrup, and B-heavy molasses for ethanol in the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2024-25 and onward.
The last government revision for these prices was in November 2022, with current prices set at ₹60.73 per litre for ethanol from B-heavy molasses and ₹65.61 per litre from sugarcane juice/syrup. The prices have remained unchanged since then.
Meanwhile, the country’s yield and production of sugarcane was “looking good as of now” and prospects for the new sugarcane crop are "much better than last year”, said Chopra.
“We are still waiting for the advance estimates from the agriculture ministry. We will comment once we have the estimates,” the food secretary said on this year’s sugar production.
With broken rice made available as feedstock, said Chopra, there was an allocation of 5.2 million tonnes of broken rice for this year through October, against which the government expects lifting of 3 million tonnes, he further informed.
"Because we missed the first two cycles, the allotment happened late, as a result of which the off-take has not been as per our expectation," Chopra said.
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