Sufficient Sugar stocks to control price, says Paswan

New Delhi: The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan Thursday has reviewed the prices and availability of sugar in the country in a meeting with senior officials of his Ministry.

Government has taken necessary steps to maintain sufficient stocks in the country and keep the sugar prices under check. The total availability of sugar in the country would be sufficient to meet the domestic consumption.

During the current Sugar Season 2016-17, the country has started with a carryover stock of 7.71 million MT (mMT) of sugar.

The production of sugar has been estimated at about 22.52 mMT in the current sugar season. While the domestic consumption is estimated at about 25.5 mMT, the stock position at the close of the current sugar season (Sept. 2017) is likely to be at 4.73 mMT which will be carried forward for the next sugar season 2017-18.

The sugar production in the next sugar season (2017-18) is expected to be good and is likely to start early and therefore there will be no shortage of domestically produced sugar in India. By November 2017, another 2 mMT would be available from early crushing.