Nitin Gadkari urges millers to reduce sugar production, focus on ethanol

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari express concern over surplus cane production in Solapur, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday urged sugar mill owners to reduce production of sugar and increase production of ethanol.

Gadkari was in Solapur on Monday for the foundation stone-laying ceremony of national highway projects. The minister said that if the production continues like this, the farmers will have no option but to commit suicide.

Meanwhile, India’s sugar exports grew 64.9 per cent to $4.6 billion in FY 2021-22 from $2.79 billion in the previous year, according to the latest government data.

According to data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), India exported sugar to 121 countries across the world during the financial year ended March 2022.

India is the second largest sugar producer in the world after Brazil. Since 2010-11, India has consistently produced additional sugar, comfortably exceeding domestic requirements. The record exports will help sugar growers to reduce their stocks and also benefit cane farmers, as rising demand for Indian sugar is likely to improve their realizations, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka account for about 80 per cent of the total sugar production in the country. Other major sugarcane producing states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab.