THE MAHARASHTRA State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation has strongly opposed any move to import either raw or white sugar. Shivajirao Nagawade Patil, president of the federation, reasoned the country will not face any sugar shortage as the crushing season 2017-18 is expected to start in the first week of October.
“Till Monday, the country produced 147 lakh tonne (lt) of sugar.
Some mills are still operational in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Considering the present trend, the country will produce 215-16 lt of sugar by the end of season. The carry forward stock of last season is 77 lt so the country will have 293-94 lt of sugar stock at its disposal till the next season starts,” he said.
Even if one takes the national yearly demand as 250 lt, the next season will start with a carry forward stock of 43-44 lt, said Nagawade Patil. The festive season, which starts from the month of October, will also not see any sugar shortage as the crushing season will be starting early. “The fresh stock of sugar will be available by October 15,” he said.
Import of raw sugar, Nagawade Patil said, will not achieve the price parity that the government is looking at but will impact the present prices of sugar in a negative manner. “The landing cost of raw sugar at 10 per cent duty will work out to be Rs 38 per kg. Post processing, the ex factory price of the raw sugar will be around Rs 40 per kg and the retail price will be between Rs 42 and Rs 44 per kg,” he said. The demand of sugar traders for import duty reduction, he said, will not help the farmers or the millers.
Demands of some millers for lowering of import duty of raw sugar and allowing them to treat it during offseason was also not viable according to him. Once the boilers of the mills are switched off, Nagawade Patil said, it will be difficult for them to turn it on before season.
“Only mills that have crushed to their full capacity will have bagasse to use as fuel in off season. Rest of the mills would have already exhausted their bagasse in running their co-generation plants or as fuel during the season,” he said. Most of the mills in Maharashtra had gone for under capacity crushing so barring a handful of private mills none of them have any extra bagasse. “On the other hand mills from Uttar Pradesh had gone for full capacity crushing so they will be able to re-ignite their boilers using stored bagasse and process raw sugar,” he said.
At present, retail price of sugar in India is Rs 42 per kg, which Nagawade Patil said will not rise. “We have asked our members to increase sales so that there is no shortage of sugar,” he said.
Source: indianexpress.com