Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Railways Minister, who also handles Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry informed sugar industry that the Centre will not reduce the fair and remunerative price (FRP) given to growers for sugarcane.
Instead, the industry must find a way to earn more by being more efficient & diversifying its product portfolio.
Goyal, who was addressing the 86th annual general meeting (AGM) of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said it was not logical to link sugarcane purchase price to sugar price realization& so it was not possible to cut the FRP as it was an institutional mechanism going on since many years, much before the present PM Modi government.
He asked the industry to look into the possibility of boosting the production of ethanol & adding other potential products into the sugar industry’s portfolio. Goyal said there is no need to stop at 10% blending, it can go up to 20-30% adding that Brazil has been blending 70-80% ethanol in fuel.
He asked the sugar industry to work closely with the transport industry & government to make this happen. The minister said the government’s decision to give Rs. 6,000 / tonne export & transport subsidy for exporting 60 lakh tonnes of sugar in the present marketing year 2020-21 (October 2020 to September 2021) would help the industry liquidate surplus sugar stocks.
