Sugar prices set to firm up further in retail market

With sugar mills facing cane shortage, prices of sugar are likely to firm up further in the retail market.

Inquiries from various sugar mills in Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh revealed that most of the sugar mills are currently running at 60 to 70 per cent capacity due to the shortage of cane.

In order to overcome the shortfall, sugar mills had increased the procurement price of sugarcane by Rs 5 to Rs 10 during the past two to three days, mill sources said.

“Earlier, we were paying Rs 220-225 to farmers, now we are giving Rs 230-235,” said an official of the Luxmi Sugar mill at Iqbalpur in Haridwar district.

After touching low at Rs 3,300 per quintal last week, prices of sugar have again bounced back to Rs 3,750 per quintal today. This upward trend would continue for some more time till the prices settle at Rs 4,000 per quintal, market sources said.

But the mill officials said the prices were soaring mostly due to the continuous shortfall of cane, particularly of the early variety.

The situation is no different in other sugar mills like Uttam and Luxar in Haridwar.

Most of the sugar mills in the nearby Saharanpur and Muzaffarpur districts of Uttar Pradesh also reported similar trends.

Initially at the start of the crushing season, the sugar mills faced no problem as farmers lined up to sell their produce. But of late, the farmers are not showing much interest to sell sugarcane as they are currently busy in winter sowing.

In the current scenario, the concept of the state advised price (SAP) had also become almost redundant as the prices were being governed according to availability of the sugarcane now, the mill officials said. Uttarakhand early this month had announced the SAP for sugarcane at Rs 192-197, which was considered to be the highest in the country at that time.

When contacted, Sugarcane Minister Madan Kaushik said all the six sugar mills in the government sector would also pay the bonus on the lines of private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. All the 10 sugar mills in the state have started their crushing season also in late November.