From The Hindu Archives, January 7, 1976: Foreign demand for cube sugar

New Delhi, Jan. 6: The State Trading Corporation, the canalising agency for export of sugar, has enquiries from foreign buyers for monthly supply of 10,000 tonnes of cube sugar.

Indian white crystal sugar has already emerged as one of the top foreign exchange earners since last year when STC exported 6.24 lakh tonnes of sugar earning a total foreign exchange of approximately Rs. 314 crores. During the current year, the Corporation hopes to double exports in terms of quantity but since international price of sugar has recently come down and stabilised around $325 per tonne, the foreign exchange earnings is expected to be around Rs. 425 crores only.

Against $325 for white crystal sugar, cube sugar is quoted in the international market at more than $500 per tonne.

Production of cube sugar in the country at present is restricted to two sugar mills only, one in the private sector at Daurala in west U.P. and the other in the co-operative sector in Maharashtra. According to a spokesman of the State Trading Corporation, the two units together have a capacity to produce only 175 tonnes of cube sugar per month and this is consumed within the country.

The Corporation is at present engaged in negotiating with some of the sugar mills for production of additional cube sugar to meet the export demand.

Having already contracted a sale of 12.2 lakh tonnes abroad, the Corporation is confident that it would fulfil its target of 13 lakh tonnes of sugar exports set for the current financial year.

An STC spokesman said that out of the contracted quantity, 7.5 lakh tonnes had been shipped so far, earning foreign exchange worth Rs. 310 crores.

Indian sugar is now exported to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Maldives, Qatar, Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Shipments are effected from Bombay, Mormugao, Kandla, Visakhapatnam and Madras ports. The STC has plans to start shipments from Paradip port shortly.

Sugar for exports are drawn from all sugar-producing States — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Indian Sugar Mills Association and the National Federation of Co-operative Sugar Factories Association are associated in the factory-wise procurement of sugar for export.

A party of newsmen who visited a co-operative sugar factory and a modernised private sector industry located at Baghpat and Newada respectively in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh found that cane crushing season has got off to a good start, with farmers bringing cane in abundance to factories by animal-drawn carts and trucks.

According to the STC spokesman, one of the problems that the Corporation faces in the matter of sugar exports was non-availability of uniform good quality sugar. Procurement for exports was done from different States which had various factories, the majority of which had no quality control. Nor did some of them stick to their delivery schedules.

The location of some factories far off from ports added to the difficulties. It would be better, the spokesman said, if STC could get all its needs for exports from a few good factories located nearer the ports. A sizable buffer stock at the ports could also help a great deal, he felt.

A spokesman of the industry said the prolonged rains in the cane-growing region last season had prevented early maturity of the cane crop. As a result, the crushing season there started 10 to 15 days late. This in turn resulted in a fall in production of about one and a half lakh tonnes compared to the last crushing season. The recovery in cane was also comparatively less — by about 0.5 to one per cent. However, he said, production was picking up and if the winter rains, though late, do not fail, production could reach last year’s record output.

PLEA TO INCREASE LEVY SUGAR PRICE

All the same, the industry spokesman maintained, because of increased cost of production the factories would incur a loss unless the levy sugar price was revised upwards. The levy sugar price, he said, should be in conformity with the Bhargava Commission recommendations and Tariff Commission schedules.

Published – January 07, 2026 12:14 am IST