The Indian sugar has been under financial distress where sugar mills are in big trouble as they have been choked up with surplus stocks of sugar, low demand in the market, and piling cane arrears. On the other hand, the India is striving to escalate exports by exploring new markets however that seems to be next to impossible considering the current global prices and bumper harvest in the sugar producing countries.
The government has taken a slew of measures to bail out cash-starved sugar mills as well as cane farmers in the last one year like doubling the import duty on sugar, scrapping off the export duty, provision of soft loans, hike in MSP etc, however it is yet to find an actual solution to it. To give a sensation of motion to the industry the Department of Food and Public Distribution has called a meeting tomorrow to discuss long term reforms for the sugar sector, short term measures and strategies to be adopted to sweeten the industry.
As per the sources, the meeting is to be attended by Principal Secretaries for sugar and sugar Development of various states, cane commissioners of various states, Joint secretary of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Director of National Sugar Institute, Managing Directors of Federations of Coop Sugar Mills of various states, Professor from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, presidents of various sugar mills and trade associations, managing directors of mills around the country and exporters.
