India wants ethanol to fuel its cars, but food inflation is a major risk

India is pushing for more cars to run on ethanol made from sugar, a move that risks raising the cost of the sweetener globally.

The government will fast-track an ethanol program that will divert as much as 6 million tons of sugar toward fuel production annually by 2025, according to the food ministry. That’s almost the entire amount that India, the world’s second-biggest producer after Brazil, currently exports to the global market.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi advanced in June a target for blending 20% ethanol in gasoline to 2025, five years earlier than planned. The advantages are multifold: it will