Quota of about 25 lakh tonnes of sugar likely to be released for September
22-Aug-2024 11:10 AM
New Delhi. In view of various festivals, the government is likely to increase the free sale quota of sugar for the next month.
According to a trade organization, the Food Ministry may fix a quota of about 25 lakh tonnes of sugar for millers across the country to sell in the domestic sector during September 2024, which will be more than the August quota of 22 lakh tonnes and July quota of 24 lakh tonnes.
It is known that September is the last month of the marketing season of 2023-24 and the new marketing season of 2024-25 will formally start from October.
A trade organization of Maharashtra says that many holy festivals of Hindus will be celebrated in the coming months, for which there will be huge demand for sugar.
Similarly, its seasonal demand also starts increasing from September. The Food Ministry is well aware of this reality and hence it can decide to increase the free sale quota of sugar for September as compared to July-August. It is going to be announced in the next few days.
The market was somewhat surprised by the free sale quota of only 22 lakh tonnes of sugar for the month of August.
This quota was 8.3 percent less than that of July. Trade analysts believed that this quota would not be sufficient to meet the domestic demand and need of sugar.
But on one hand, the millers had some stock of sugar from the July quota left and secondly, the activity of bulk buyers decreased due to heavy monsoon rains.
The demand for sugar was also seen to be weak in the cold drinks and ice cream manufacturing industry. Due to heavy rains in many parts of the country, the sugar business partially slowed down.
The government had allowed the millers to sell the remaining sugar of the July quota till August 15, which eased its supply and availability situation.
In comparison to July, the free sale quota of sugar for the month of August was reduced by 14 percent for Maharashtra and 6 percent for Uttar Pradesh. Despite this, there was no problem of supply.