Urge to end ban on sugar exports

19-Jun-2024 06:33 PM

Pune. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder and former Union Minister Sharad Pawar has urged the Prime Minister to end the ban on sugar exports and relax the limit on ethanol blending.

He said that if this request is not accepted, the necessary target will be taken democratically. Sharad Pawar said that the central government has taken many decisions against the farmers.

If the export of sugar had continued regularly, sugarcane producers could have got better prices. But this government has banned the export of sugar for the last one year and even ethanol blending has been controlled, due to which sugar mills have started getting less income.

On the one hand, the central government is ensuring that farmers get low prices while on the other hand input costs for the agricultural sector are being increased. Farmers are facing problems from both sides of the supply chain.

According to the NCP leader, a letter has been sent to the Prime Minister about these problems, urging him to take necessary steps.

It is hoped that the Prime Minister will take a positive decision in that direction, otherwise necessary steps will be taken to oppose the government decisions in a democratic manner. For this, the cooperation and support of the farmer will be required.

It is noteworthy that in the marketing season of 2023-24, due to the fear of decline in the production of sugarcane and sugar and increase in prices,

the government had banned the commercial export of sugar indefinitely from 1 June 2023 and after a long struggle,

allowed the use of sugarcane equivalent to only 17 lakh tonnes of sugar in the manufacture of ethanol. Later, when there were signs of better production of sugar and increase in stock,

the industry requested the government to allow the export of 20 lakh tonnes of sugar, then the government ignored it as well.