India plans to discourage ethanol production to prioritise sugar: Report
India is planning to discourage the diversion of sugar for ethanol production as part of efforts to ensure sufficient supplies of the sweetener in the local market, government and trade sources said on Wednesday.
Lower diversion for ethanol will help the world’s second biggest sugar producer in increasing output of the sweetener, which is expected to fall because of below normal rainfall in key growing states.
The government could ask mills not to use sugar cane juice and B-heavy molasses – a byproduct with higher sucrose levels – to produce ethanol, they said.
India is planning to discourage the diversion of sugar for ethanol production as part of efforts to ensure sufficient supplies of the sweetener in the local market, government and trade sources said on Wednesday.
Lower diversion for ethanol will help the world’s second biggest sugar producer in increasing output of the sweetener, which is expected to fall because of below normal rainfall in key growing states.
The government could ask mills not to use sugar cane juice and B-heavy molasses – a byproduct with higher sucrose levels – to produce ethanol, they said.
The government’s move is a setback for the industry, which has invested billions of dollars in the last five years to increase ethanol production capacity, said a senior industry official who declined to be named.
“Hopefully, this setback will be short-term, and the government will shift its focus back to ethanol once sugar cane supplies improve,” the official said.
Patchy rains in the top sugar cane-growing western state of Maharashtra and southern Karnataka state have raised concerns about this year’s sugar output.
The Indian Sugar Mills Association, a producers’ body, last month said sugar production is likely to fall 8% to 33.7 million metric tons in the 2023/24 marketing year.
