UP sugar mills saddled with Rs.1,130 cr of farmers arrears.
Ram Gopal Yadav (8 years ago)

Barely three weeks before the 2017-18 sugarcane crushing gets underway in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest sugar producer, the state sugar mills, which are predominantly private sector owned, have arrears to tune of Rs 1,130 crore pertaining to the previous 2016-17 season. Of the outstanding amount, the private millers owe the bulk at almost Rs 945 crore, or 84 per cent of the consolidated arrears. The remaining Rs 185 crore is due from the state co-operative federation units. Settlement of arrears within 14 days of sale was a prominent pre-poll promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the run up to the UP 2017 Assembly elections. The 2016-17 crushing season had wrapped up by the first week of May 2017. Although five months have passed, yet the arrears have still not been settled in total.

Don’t increase cane prices, U.P. sugar mills appeal to govt.
Ram Gopal Yadav (8 years ago)

Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have requested the State government not to increase the prices at which sugarcane is purchased from farmers this year. In a letter written to the Chief Secretary of the State, the U.P. Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) said that any increase in cane prices would hit them hard “as the cane industry has been going through losses for last three consecutive years. The request comes days after distressed farmers of the State alleged that the present rate of Rs. 305 per quintal of cane was much lower than the total input cost that goes into the farming of cane in U.P. Farmers have waged a campaign to increase the State Advised Price (SAP) to ?400 per quintal. Uttar Pradesh became the highest producer of sugar last year, contributing close to 42% of the total sugar production in India.

Europe on the brink of sugar deluge as quotas end.
Ram Gopal Yadav (8 years ago)

Europe is about to get a lot sweeter. After a decade of quotas, sugar firms in the European Union can now produce and export as much as they want. Companies such as France’s Tereos and Germany’s Suedzucker AG have been ramping up operations to get ready for the change, which will help fuel a global sugar glut. The scrapping of quotas may also lead to major changes in the global sugar trade. With increased EU production, there will be less need to import supplies from places like Africa and the Caribbean. While the industry has been readying for the change for years, it may further pressure prices that have dropped 28 percent in 2017, the worst performance in a Bloomberg index of 22 commodities. In the EU, the sugar-beet harvest is now in full swing and tests are showing higher-than-average yields in France and Germany, the region’s top growers.

Pulses import at Tuticorin port down 59% on month at 20,324 tn Aug.
Ram Gopal Yadav (8 years ago)

Import of pulses at Tuticorin port more than halved on month to 20,324 tn in August. The sharp decline in the reporting month comes after the government capped imports of some pulses such as urad, tur and moong. The government restricted annual import of urad and moong to 300,000 tn each, while the limit for tur was set at 200,000 tn. A fall in imports of peas and moong also contributed to the overall decline in shipments into India.