The Indian government has released 16.5 lakh tonnes of sugar for the open market sales by mills for the month of August 2009. The release includes 13.77 lakh tonnes of Free Sale Quota (FSQ) of mills, besides 1.33 lakh tonnes out of the dismantled buffer stock created earlier, and 1.4 lakh tonnes of white sugar processed from the imported raw sugar.
The government has done away with the practice of announcing the non-levy or free sale sugar quota on quarterly basis and instead started releasing it on a monthly basis with effect from July 2009, till suspension of futures trading in sugar remains in force.
Further, 61371 million tonnes of white/refined sugar imported by designated agencies has already landed. It is expected that importers would dispose of at least one third of quantity imported white/refined sugar in the month of August 2009.
A quantity of 1.85 lakh tonnes has also been released under levy sugar for distribution in the public distribution system (PDS) for August. Thus, the total sugar available in August 2009 would be 18.55 lakh tonnes, sufficient to meet the internal demand of sugar for this month.
Sugar experts feel that the latest decision has been taken to conserve sugar. With estimated opening stocks of 95 lakh tonnes, production of 150 lakh tonnes and consumption of 230 lakh tonnes, the current 2008-09 sugar season (October-September) will close with stocks of 15 lakh tonnes.
Although the country might end up importing 30 lakh tonnes of raw sugar, only about 10 lakh tonnes of this might be converted into whites. Much of the raw sugar that have been imported can be processed only from December, when the mills start crushing and there is bagasse available from the cane that can be used as fuel.
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