Indian sugar mills association

Too much sugar

Date:	12 Dec 2011

Source:	The Business Standard

Reporter:	M.V. Nateshan

News ID:	758

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There has been a boom in sugarcane production. From less than 250 million tonnes, India has achieved a production of 780 million tonnes, which amounts to Rs 70,000 crore worth of sugarcane grown on seven million hectares of land by 52 million farmers. To get the full benefits of this boom, all the cane will have to be utilised industrially. Even after providing an additional 100 million tonnes of sugarcane for jaggery, there will be 430 million tonnes of cane to be utilised at least as efficiently as sugar. Brazil, the world`s largest producer of sugar, has shown us that utilising sugarcane directly to produce ethanol is probably more economical than making sugar. Fifty-five per cent of Brazil`s sugarcane is used for ethanol production and the market for ethanol, to be used either on a standalone basis or as a blend, is very large. In fact, oil companies and associates have been rushing to Brazil to set up ethanol plants.

Unfortunately, the government is concerned about food security, and the Sugar Control Order under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act has banned the direct manufacture of ethanol from sugarcane. This was prompted by the fact that India`s sugar production reached a low of 14.5 million tonnes and the government was forced to import. But there need be no such concerns now since sugar production has been standardised, with more area under sugarcane cultivation and advanced practices improving yield per hectare and sugar recovery.

Since ethanol is produced only from molasses, a by-product of the sugar industry, sugar mills last year could give only a fraction of ethanol required to meet even the five per cent blending norm with petrol. It is crucial for the government to lift the ban on using sugarcane to produce ethanol so that the boom in sugarcane production can be optimised, apart from enabling India to reduce its dependence on scarce and expensive fossil fuels.

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