Pawar bats for sugar, onion exports

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today made a strong case for allowing exports of sugar and onion in a bid to get better price for farmers. “Onion and sugarcane growers have every right to get guaranteed price in the changing scenario. Rapidly falling prices of onions need to be curbed. There is undoubtedly a need for allowing exports of sugar and onion,” Pawar told Business Standard after addressing a public meeting at sugarcane-rich Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.

Pawar said he had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to send a communication to the Centre on allowing exports of onion and sugar.

The sugar industry recently made a fresh appeal to immediately resume exports of 500,000 tonnes of sugar under an open general licence (OGL). The Centre had already planned to allow export 1.5 million tonnes of the commodity in three equal instalments of half a million tonnes under OGL in January, February and March.

The agriculture minister’s views on onion exports are important in the wake of rapidly falling prices of onions.