ISMA held its 86th Annual General Meeting on 18th December 2020, in New Delhi. Due to the global pandemic caused by Covid-19 virus, the AGM was a virtual event, attended by more than 180 people. The meeting was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Industry & Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal.
In his Presidential address, Shri Vivek Pittie said that the basic problem faced by the sugar industry is the sugarcane pricing policy. Sugarcane farmers in India are paid 100% more than the A2+FL cost, whereas in case of other competing crops like paddy, pulses, oil seeds, jowar, cotton, maize, ground nut etc, the mark up is in the range of only 50-65% over the A2+FL cost, except in the case of wheat, barley and gram, where the mark up is 75-100%. The President said that the Rangarajan Committee recommended to determine the cane price payable by sugar mills at 70% of revenue from sugar and by-products or at 75% of revenue from sugar alone. This suggested formula in India is higher than the world average of 62-66% of revenue, but it is acceptable to the industry. Anything above the said percentages would be detrimental to the industry and would be unsustainable.
The Food Secretary, Shri Sudhanshu Pandey said that pricing of the sugarcane is one of the major factors that pushes up the cost of the sugar. But industry has to realise that it is this farmer which is responsible for putting the sugar industry at a place where it is today. And therefore a very delicate balance has to be struck.
Inaugurating the 86th AGM, Hon’ble Minister Shri Piyush Goyal said that the industry should be practical. The Government cannot reduce the sugarcane FRP, which the industry pays to the cane farmer. He asked the industry to develop other by-products, and increase the ethanol blending percentage to beyond 10%. The Hon’ble Minister said that the Ministry will look at various ways to increase funding for ethanol projects.