Indian Sugar Sector de-control developments

After almost 1 year Since July 2010, yesterday, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Said that the Central Governmet is expected to hold a meeting in next 10 days to discuss a meeting regarding decontrolling Sugar Sector from the country.

If partial or full decontrol happens it will be interesting to see what impact it could make on the efficiency and profitability of the Sugar mills, as the govt has criticized that some mill owners has so long tried to keep the prices ‘controlled’ by the govt, while most big industrial in this houses have had expressed that govt is doing ill to sector by not decontrolling the sector.

It is notable that as Sugar is one of the basic and most essential commodities so far that the central govt has to keep the prices administered rather that determined by market forces. However the 2^nd phase of liberalization as we like to call it, started with getting rid of ‘administered’ prices in

Article on Sugar Sector

SUGAR –

INTRODUCTION TO SUGAR:

Sugar is an informal term for a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose characterized by a sweet flavor. In food, sugar almost exclusively refers to sucrose, which primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet.

Other sugars are used in industrial food preparation, but are usually known by more specific names—glucose, fructose or fruit sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

SUGAR PLANTS CULTIVATION:

Sugar cane is a hot weather plant, which is why the largest growing areas are in South Asia, Brazil, the Caribbean Basin and the southern United States. Sugar beets are grown in cool temperate zones such as the northern Great Plains, Germany and France. Both cane and beets must be processed into raw sugar very soon after the plants are harvested or else their sugar content will drop precipitously.