Sugar Industry Body (ISMA) on Wednesday assured the government there is enough sugar with the sugar mills, therefore there will not be any problem of availability of this essential kitchen item in the country.
The spread of COVID-19, and the lockdown had initially disrupted some movement of sugar due to lack of availability of trucks, but due to the intervention of Ministry of Food and Notifications from Home Ministry, sugar dispatches have picked up in the last 4-5 days, according to a statement issued by ISMA.
However, Sugar companies are facing some problems in smooth supplies of ethanol, it also said.
According to ISMA, as many as 457 sugar mills started crushing operations during 2019-20 season, 70 less than 527 mills operating last year.
As on March 31, 271 mills had stopped functioning and only 186 sugar mills in are crushing on that date, most of them being in North India. In comparison, last year as on March 31, 240 mills were operating.
As much as 232.74 lakh tons of sugar has been produced till yesterday as against 296.82 lakh tons produced last year, about 64.08 lakh tons less, said ISMA
"ISMA has assured the Government that there is enough sugar with the sugar mills, and therefore, there will not be any problem of availability of this essential food item for the consumers", it said
Wherever there is any availability of sugarcane, the sugar mills are making all efforts to ensure that the farmers do not face any problem, and sugar mills in those areas are operating, it added
During the initial a couple of days of the lockdown, there was concern about smooth availability of important inputs like lime, sulphur, bags, phosphoric acid etc.
Availability of these inputs have since been assured by the Government and the suppliers therein and normal supplies have been restored, said ISMA
However, the lime quarries/kilns were closed by the Government of Rajasthan.
"The matter was taken up by ISMA with the Rajasthan Government. After the intervention of the Food Ministry and UP Government, the Government of Rajasthan has allowed lime quarries/kilns to operate during this lockdown period, and there is smooth availability of all inputs now," it said
However, Sugar companies are facing some problems in smooth supplies of ethanol. This is mainly because of lower off take of petrol, because of which some of the depots of the OMCs are unable to take further supplies due to lack of storage space therein.
Since individual contracts have been entered into between sugar companies and OMCs for ethanol supplies, which are depot wise across the country, the OMCs have been requested to reallocate the quantities to other depots where they have tankage/storage space, it said
"The OMCs have responded very positively and very quickly to identify the depots where they are facing problems of storage capacities and depots where they can take further ethanol supplies, beyond the contracts.
It is a matter of time by when the OMCs and the sugar companies would have mutually agreed to reallocate the ethanol quantities to other and newer depots. One expects that all the ethanol contracted for, will get fully supplied in the year, thanks to the full cooperation of the OMCs to relocate some of the supplies to other depots," ISMA said.