National Federation of Cooperative Sugar discusses key issues with Union Food Secy
The National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) met Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra and discussed problems being faced by sugar mills and the entire sugar industry in the country.
Team RuralVoice
The National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) met Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra and discussed problems being faced by sugar mills and the entire sugar industry in the country.
They explained various issues in detail while drawing their attention to how the sudden restrictions on ethanol production is leading to the financial crisis in the sugar industry.
Considering the extended season of sugarcane crushing in Maharashtra and its impact on the sugar recovery, they said, approximately 18 lakh tonnes of surplus sugar, that remain at the end of the season, needed to be used in the ethanol production.
They also pointed out that the surplus stock of “B” molasses remaining with the factories could be used for juice/syrup.
The NFCSF also pointed out that the new rates of ethanol produced from this, have not been announced yet.
The Central Government’s decision to sell at least 90 percent of the quota of sugar from February is affecting the price of sugar in the market which has fallen by Rs 250 per quintal. Besides, the participation of traders in the tender has decreased. As a result, the full quota given at the end of February has not been sold.
"Keeping all this in mind, the officials requested them to relax the 90 percent sale restriction," the NFCSF said in a pressnote.
The central government has frozen the Minimum Selling Price of sugar from February 2019 at Rs. 31 per kg but in the subsequent five years the price of sugarcane has been increasing every year. Therefore, it is urgent to increase the minimum selling price of sugar to pay the increased rate to the farmers in time and in full. It was asserted that the increase in the rate of sugar is logically correct.
They said the sugar price could be linked to the price of sugarcane as per condition 4 of the central government’s Sugar Price Control Order. Accordingly, sugar price could be Rs 40 per kg. Even the CACP in its report, has justified this.
It was requested that the Central Government should think about starting a "Sugar Reserve Stock Scheme" in order to get the sugar industry out of the current situation.
The officials, who included Joint Secretary (Sugar) Aswani Srivastava, Director (Sugar) Sangeet Singla and some others of the sugar department, heard the issues and promised to see how these could be resolved.
Under the leadership of the new President of the NFCSF, Harshvardhan Patil, the National Sugar Federation has started working to help the sugar industry in a fast manner.
Patil led the team of new Board of Directors of the NFCSF to the Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi, on the very day of his election.
The NFCSF has decided to hold future meetings of the board of directors in various States and to meet the member sugar factories in those states/divisions to understand their problems. Along with that, meetings are also planned with Union Food Minister, Union Finance Minister and Union Home/Cooperation Minister, the release added.
