The Indian Sugar and Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) has demanded that central govt allow the export of 20 lakh tonnes of sugar. There is an excess stock of 32 lakh tonnes in the country, and the crushing season of sugarcane is going to start soon, with newly produced sugar set to flood the markets.
ISMA has also demanded, again, an increase in the minimum support price of sugar to Rs39.14/kg and an increase in ethanol prices to Rs73.14/litre to offset heavy losses incurred by the manufacturers.
M Prabhakar Rao, ISMA president, said, “We need urgent support from govt to increase the MSP of sugar to reduce losses faced by the industry. This will protect the minimum ex-factory price, particularly during the crushing season, during which prices tend to go below the cost of production, bleeding the mills and making them financially unviable.
This may lead to a delay in payment of cane arrears and sometimes defaults to the farmers . Based on the historical MSP declared by govt, ISMA has been requesting revising the MSP to at least Rs39.14/kg, based on the same formula used for fixing the MSP in 2017-18 and 2018-19.”