In a notification issued on the 24th day of April 2023, the Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) stated that sugar mills shall strictly comply with 20% packaging of the total production of sugar in jute packaging material.
Recently, the Central Government has issued orders under the provision of Jute Packaging Material (Compulsory use in Packaging use in packaging commodities) Act, 1987, specifying 20% of the total production of sugar to be mandatorily packed in the jute packaging material.
The JPM Act, 1987 exempts certain types of sugar packaging from the purview of reservation. These include sugar fortified with vitamins, packaging for export of commodities, small consumer packs of ten kilograms and below for food-grains and twenty-five kilograms and below for sugar, bulk packaging of more than one hundred kilograms, and sugar packed for export but which could not be exported on the basis of an assessment and recommendation by the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
Further, DFPD has requested apex industry bodies ISMA (Indian Sugar Mills Association) and NFCSF (National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories) to advise their member sugar mills for strict compliance with the provision of the JPM Act, 1987.
The reservation norms in present proposal would further protect the interest of domestic production of raw jute and jute packaging material in lndia, thereby, making India self-reliant in consonance with Aatmnirbhar Bharat. Besides, it will help protect the environment because jute is natural, bio- degradable, renewable and reusable fiber and hence fulfills all sustainability parameters.
