Mumbai: With consecutive three-years of drought in
Maharashtra that is going through its most crucial period this year, sugar
production is seen dropping over 40 percent. Maharashtra is the country’s
largest sugar producing state and is likely to become the net imported of sugar
in 2016-17.
Reports are that with dry irrigation in repeated
years at Maharashtra, the country will ‘mark the first time the nation has been
a net importer of the sweetener in four years.’ President of the Bombay Sugar
Merchants Association, Ashok Jain, confirmed: “India will need to import next
year due to a production shortfall.” “Drought has severely affected cane
plantations in Maharashtra. The government should stop exports now to reduce
import requirements in the next season,” Jain added.
According to the Met Office, India has been stroked
with the worst heat and drought in recent years. Following water scarcity and
disturbed weather phenomenon, Maharashtra failed to cultivate sugar cane even
for the next financial year, starting from this October.
Baban Swami, a farmer from Latur district of
Maharashtra, the most drought-affected district of the state, said: “Even for
drinking water we are relying on water tankers. It wasn’t possible for anyone
from our village to cultivate cane.” Reports are that the condition in the
state ‘could help push overall output below consumption for the first time in
seven years.’
With a history of boosting global sugar prices in
the past, India is the biggest sugar consumer with a total of 25.7 million
tones, including 8.5 million tons from Maharashtra alone. The global supply deficit is going to rise
with the Indian shortfall. “This could trigger a rally, although a lot depends
on how much sugar India needs to import,” as said by a sugar trading firm from
Singapore.
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