'Sugar imports from Brazil add to ailing domestic industry'

Sugar imports from Brazil are adding to the woes of the domestic companies, which are already faced with problems of surplus production, an industry official said today.
"At the time when the Indian sugar industry should have been exporting ..., the country is flooded with Brazilian raw sugar that is adding to our problems," Riga Sugar CMD and former President of Indian Sugar Mills Association O P Dhanuka said.
He said despite surplus production for the last four years, the government had allowed import of sugar at a low import duty of 25 per cent.
Dhanuka said non-payment to farmers by the mills in March 2014 was as high as Rs 13,000 crore and now it is estimated at around Rs 7,000 crore due to losses.

According to an agency, the import figure is 40 lakh tonnes in two years and almost everything is from Brazil as Indian entities directly or indirectly has created sugar interest in the south American country and now the surplus is routed to India, Dhanuka alleged.
He said re-export was just 11 lakh tonnes of sugar.

The sugar industry has been complaining of loss as cane prices were higher than the sale price by the mills.
Dhanuka said unless government took strong steps to reform the sector, the domestic ailing sugar industry would not survive.
He said linking cane price with sugar price is the long term solution.