The government has taken a big step to curb the rise in sugar prices in the country. From next month, a quota for sugar sales will be fixed for each batch of sugar mills. The main objective of this step is to ensure uninterrupted supply of sugar in the market. Currently, the Ministry of Food is giving quota for sugar sales to sugar mills on a monthly basis. However, the government has once again clarified that there is no shortage of sugar in the country. In the last few days, the ex-mill price of sugar has come down by about 20 percent and prices have also started coming down in the retail market.
Were the mills selling less sugar?
The Ministry of Food has said that some important irregularities were found during the inspection of sugar stocks in the sugar mills. Some mills were found to have more sugar stocks than the declared quantity, while some mills were found to have sold less sugar than the allotted quota. Apart from this, another problem has come up. Although the mills were selling sugar at the beginning of the month, in some cases, buyers were picking up sugar at the end of the month. As a result, there are allegations that there is an artificial shortage of sugar in the market.
Sugar distribution system to change from September
To overcome this problem, the government has decided to change the sugar distribution system from September. According to the new rules, the mills will have to sell at least 40 percent of the allocated sugar in the first week. The remaining sugar will have to be sold in the following week. If it is felt that there is insufficient availability of sugar in the market, the Food Ministry can also take steps to release additional available sugar to the market as required.
The government has given another order to the sugar mills. The sold sugar will have to be sent from the mill within 7 days of the date of sale. Similarly, buyers have also been asked not to stock more sugar than they need. To keep sugar prices under control, the central government has recently allowed import of 1 million tonnes of sugar till October 31.
Did the price increase due to hoarding?
The Food Ministry has said that the decline in the price of sugar coming out of the mills and the decline in the retail price is proof that hoarding was a major reason behind the recent increase in sugar prices. After this step of the government, the availability of sugar in the market has increased and the price is expected to come down further.
New sugar season from October
According to the Food Ministry, the crushing of sugarcane for the new season of the 2026-27 sugar marketing year starting from October will begin from October 15. It is expected that the availability of sugar in the market will improve even more after the start of the new sugar season. It is estimated that sugar production will be over 1 million tons in October and around 4.5 million tons in November.
