2 months ago
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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved on Wednesday the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane for the 2024-2025 sugar season that starts in October this year at ₹340 per quintal at sugar recovery rate of 10.25%.
However, farmers have said this will not meet the cost of production and sugar mills have demanded permission for more ethanol production.
An official press release said the FRP announced on Wednesday is 8% higher than FRP of sugarcane for the current season that started on October 1, 2023 and will end on September 30, 2024.
The Karnataka State Sugarcane Farmers’ Association president Kurubur Shanthakumar told The Hindu that the current cost of production is ₹358 a quintal in Karnataka and that farmers are getting ₹315 a quintal now. Even with the 8% hike proposed for the next sugar season, they will get only ₹340 a quintal.
According to the Indian Sugar and Bio-energy Manufacturers Association president M. Prabhakar Rao, “We welcome the increase in FRP as the sugar factories and the farmers should co-exist.” However, the sugar mills need a policy correction so that they are able to continue paying the entire price to the farmers on time.
The government should enhance the Minimum Sale Price (MSP) of sugar to ₹39 a kg and the price of ethanol should be revised. The government should also annually collect 4-5 million tonnes of sugar from the industry based on the MSP so that the mills can continue to support the ethanol blending programme “without getting impacted by any sudden policy changes”.
The stoppage of sugar diversion to ethanol is resulting in excess sugar stocks and fall in the sugar prices causing losses to the industry.
