Sugar Ethanol Bioenergy Int- Speaking at the India Sugar & Bio-Energy Conference in New Delhi, Ashwini Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Sugar), Department of Food and Public Distribution, said that in the new season of 2025-26, there will be scope of sugar export as it will have sufficient sugar stock, however, the quantity will be discussed. The carried forward sugar stock is expected at 5 MMT, and the sugar production is seen at 35 MMT. He expects sugar consumption at around 28 MMT in the new season.
In the current season, the Government allowed 1 MMT of sugar export, however about 0.8 MMT of export will take place in the next 2 weeks before the season ends.Speaking about cane price arrears, Joint Secretary said, the farmers are at the focal point of the Government. “The industry has been able to clear cane purchase payment on time to farmers. In the current season, industry has paid around Rs.98,000 crore. In 2023-24 SS, total payment made to the farmers was Rs. 111,000 crore”.
The policy priorities of the Government vis-à-vis sugar industry in the new season will remain managing sufficient closing stock at the end of the sugar season, diverting surplus sugar towards ethanol production, and the look at sugar export of the remaining surplus sugar available in the country.On ethanol production, he said that the requirement for ethanol in the new season is 12 billion litres to achieve uniform blending of 20% across the country. “A quantity of about 4.5 to 4.8 billion litres of ethanol is likely to be produced from sugarcane based feedstocks,” he added.
The Indian government has recently permitted sugar mills and distilleries to produce ethanol from sugarcane juice, sugar syrup, B-heavy molasses (BHM), and C-heavy molasses (CHM) during the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26 without any restrictions.Srivastava reiterated the that varietal improvement of sugarcane is important and the Government is working towards that.
