New Delhi: The ethanol production focussed policy could help in reducing surplus sugar in the Indian sugar market, said Rohit Pawar, president of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). He was speaking at an S&P Global Platts 10th Asia Sugar & Ethanol Conference.
The ethanol policy should focus on finding alternative sources of renewable energy while developing production flexibility to divert surplus cane into either sugar or ethanol, said Pawar, reports Spglobal
Recently, ISMA had forecasted the total sugar production during 2019-20 Sugar Season would be around 268.5 lakh tons without considering the impact of sugar reduction due to diversion of B heavy molasses/ sugarcane juice to ethanol.
Recently, the Indian government increased the price of ethanol from C heavy molasses from Rs.43.46 per litre to Rs.43.75 per litre, and the cost of ethanol from B heavy molasses hiked from Rs.52.43 per litre to Rs.54.27 per litre. Price of ethanol from sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup route was fixed at 59.48 per litre. Also, giving further benefits to farmers and sugar industry, the Central Government has declared that no separate environmental clearance is required to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses as it does not contribute to the pollution load.
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