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Centre May Allow Mills To Produce Ethanol From Lower-Grade Sugar
By Mr Ethanol | May 1, 2007
Financial Express:
India, the world’s second-biggest sugar producer, may allow mills to use low-grade sugar to make ethanol to beat a slump in prices amid a record harvest. The plan may help mills reduce inventory and boost domestic prices, which have fallen by almost a fourth the past six months, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said in Parliament on Monday.
“We’re seriously thinking of allowing the use of secondary sugar for ethanol manufacturing,’’ he said in New Delhi. Sugar output in India may reach a record 27.43 million tonne this year, the Foreign Agricultural Service at the US embassy in New Delhi said in a report dated April 20. Output may further rise to 28.79 million tonne in the year to September 2008.
Currently, government rules permit mills to make the bio-fuel from molasses, not sugar, to ensure adequate supplies of the sweetener. Molasses is obtained from sugar during refining. The Centre passed a law in May last year requiring gasoline to be mixed with 5% ethanol from November 2006. With domestic sugar prices languishing below production costs and a bumper crop likely to push them lower, Indian mills are facing a crisis that recent steps to boost exports won’t alone ease, a trade official said. “For every kilogram of sugar being produced and sold by us, we are incurring a cash loss,” said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director, Maharashtra Federation of Co-operative Sugar Factories in an interview. “The question is, how long can the industry sustain this situation?” he asked and also said that sugar prices have dropped by Rs 115-135 to Rs 1,185 - Rs 1,200 ($28.7-$29.1) per 100 kg in the last month, depending on the grade.
Topics: Ethanol Prices, News |
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