Sugar price rise is fine, export will go on: Sharad Pawar

The government will continue to export sugar irrespective of any opposition, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Sunday.

“The urban concern over rising prices of sugar is fine, but what about increasing sugar production so that we do not face any scarcity,” he said at a meeting of farmers in Devlali Pravra, Ahmednagar. “We need to increase the area under sugarcane production. Now that we have a bumper production why should we not sell it in the international market?” Pawar said that India had the lowest sugar prices in the world. “It is always easy to speak of rising sugar prices from the comforts of a city,” he said.  

The minister talked about exporting sugar when sugarcane farmers sought an assurance from him that their produce would get them at least Rs3,000 per tonne. “I have never been opposed to farmers getting a better price,” he said. “But we should be ready to go to the international market.”

He tried to allay fears of rising prices by citing the example of his ministry’s policy on cotton. “We were told that by allowing cotton exports we were pushing up prices for domestic textile mills as they would pass on the price hike to buyers,” he said. “But I vehemently opposed this stand it led to farmers making as much as Rs4,200 per quintal. We have time till January to sell our cotton after which America will capture the international market.”