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Informist, Monday, Mar. 17, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – ChiniMandi, a sugar industry think-tank, has urged the government to hike ethanol and sugar minimum selling prices to improve the financial health of the sugar industry. In a white paper submitted to the Road Minister Nitin Gadkari and Joint Secretary (Sugar) Aswani Srivastava on Thursday, the think-tank asked for a long-term roadmap for advanced biofuels like Green Hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and compressed biogas production. 

 

"The widening gap between MSP (minimum selling price) and FRP (fair and remunerative price) is adversely affecting the financial health of the sugar and bioenergy industry. There is a need for an urgent upward revision in sugar MSP, which will help sugar mills generate cash flow and help them make timely sugarcane purchase price payments to farmers," the white paper said. 

 

The white paper is based on the recommendations and suggestions by industry leaders at the "The Sugar - Ethanol & BioEnergy India Conference- SEIC 2025" held in New Delhi recently.

Citing the rise in fair and remunerative prices of sugarcane, the sugar industry has been demanding the minimum selling price of sugar be hiked to INR 39.14 per kg. The current minimum selling price of the sweetener is INR 31 per kg, unchanged since 2019. For cane purchases, mills pay farmers prices decided by the government. In February 2024, before the General Election, the Centre announced a hike of INR 25 in the fair and remunerative price of sugarcane to INR 340 per 100 kg.

 

Amid stagnant minimum selling price of sugar, ChiniMandi has suggested the industry produce speciality sugar--pharma-grade, icing sugar, packaged sugar--to enhance market competitiveness. "This white paper serves as a roadmap to help the industry sustain, expand, and compete on a global scale," Uppal Shah, founder and managing director of ChiniMandi, said. 

 

"The government should give a serious hearing and revise the ethanol procurement price for B Heavy molasses and direct sugarcane juice," the paper said. In January, the government hiked the price of only ethanol made from C-heavy molasses to INR 57.97 per litre from INR 56.28 per litre.

 

To improve ethanol lifting, ChiniMandi has urged the government to upgrade the logistics and infrastructure of oil marketing companies. It also suggested the government encourage ethanol production from distillers' dried grains with solubles. End

 

Reported by Afra Abubacker

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

 

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