Sugarcane Price Hiked by Rs 380 per Quintal: Announces Agri Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal

The Punjab government issued a notification regarding a Rs 380 per quintal increase in the prices of sugarcanes on Friday. In the statement issued during the financial year 2022-23, Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the government increased the price of advanced quality sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal, medium quality at Rs 370, and late quality Rs 365 per quintal. 

He further informed that the state government's share of Rs 50 per quintal will be directly deposited in the accounts of sugarcane farmers and all sugar mills will start crushing sugarcane from November 20.

Earlier Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the month of October announced increasing the price of sugarcane to Rs 380 per quintal from the existing Rs 360 per quintal. He announced a hike in SAP (state-agreed price) of sugarcane on the floor of the Punjab Assembly on the concluding day of its brief session.

In the month of August, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane for sugar marketing year 2022-23 (October-September) at Rs 305 per quintal for a basic recovery rate of 10.25 percent.

India's cabinet has approved an increase in the floor price that sugar mills must pay for cane in the season beginning Oct. 1 to 305 rupees ($3.85) per 100 kg, from 290 rupees a year earlier, the government said in a statement. The federal government raises the floor price for cane, also known as the Fair and Remunerative Price, almost every year.

The decision was expected to benefit around 50 million sugarcane farmers and their dependents, as well as about 500,000 workers employed in sugar mills and related ancillary activities. Also, in August 2021, the then Congress government announced a Rs 50 per quintal hike in SAP of sugarcane to Rs 360 per quintal.

Sugar mills throughout the country produced 32.3 million tonnes of sugar, up 59 percent from the previous year. Similarly, 355.1 million tonnes of sugarcane were purchased. This means that the year's recovery rate was 9.1 percent.

Every year the central government announces the FRP, the minimum price that mills have to pay to cane growers, every year before the start of the sugarcane crushing season. The price is set based on recommendations from an expert panel taking into account various factors including the interests of sugar mills, farmers, and the final consumer.