The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is extending ban on sugar export due to anticipated high demand of the commodity in the upcoming festive season that could hike prices of the sweetener The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) is sceptical of permitting sugar exports at present despite retail prices stabilising in the domestic market. Sugarcane production was affected last year due to unfavourable climatic conditions, which led to non-availability and in turn hike in the prices of the sweetener in the domestic market.
 Onset of the festive season within a few months from now is expected to increase the demand of the sweetener, which is used to prepare traditional sweets. With demand rise during the festive season, sugar prices are expected to surge as well. Therefore, the government would wait till November for the festivals to get over to grant permission to exporters to ship the commodity to the global market. In a bid to cater to the domestic requirements, the government had imported 20.75 lakh tonnes of sugar in 2004-05 crop year under the Advance Licence Scheme (ALS). Therefore, mill owners are expected to export the same quantity by March 2011 in order to maintain a balance, of which around 9.67 lakh tonnes is yet to be exported. This would be possible only once the release order comes from MOFPI.
Measures to curb retail prices
In this context Mallikarjuna Reddy, CEO of Nmreddy Impex, a large-sized sugar exporter in Chennai, says, “The government has introduced the weekly sub-sale quota along with the monthly free sale quota for sugar mill owners. With the government implementing this measure, the quantity of sugar to be sold by mill owners will be fixed.” This would help consumers to purchase the sweetener at a reasonable rate.
Ivan Chen, CEO of Marira Overseas Trading HK Company, a small-sized sugar manufacturer and exporter in Kolkata, opines, “Stock maintaining mills generally tend to sell sugar to companies that are known to them, which leads to non-availability of the commodity. Therefore, the government should impose certain norms to prevent such mill owners from stocking and selling the sweetener to limited number of companies.”
With the implementation of the aforementioned measures that would go a long way in ensuring availability as well as checking prices of the sweetener, the government would be able to permit exporters to ship the commodity in the coming days.
Sabrina Mitchell |
