India’s sugar demand to further improve amid relaxations in COVID-19 lockdown rules: ISMA

03 Jun 2020 Evaluate

The industry body -- Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) stated that with further relaxations in COVID-19 lockdown rules, sugar demand in India has started picking up and will further improve with opening of hotels and restaurants. The government has extended the nationwide lockdown till June 30 with a phased plan to unlock India. Malls, hotels, restaurants and places of worship can open on June 8 except in areas with the most number of coronavirus cases.

According to the ISMA, the demand for sugar has started picking up from the beginning of May with the lockdown rules getting relaxed. It said now that the country is entering the unlocking phase, and restaurants and malls are also being allowed to open, demand for sugar will further go up in June, as compared to May 2020. Therefore, along with the summer demand, it can be expected that sugar mills may be able to sell the entire June quota, along with the carry forward from May.

It said that sugar sales during April month were at par with the year-ago period, thanks to additional sales of 10 lakh tonnes that took place at the end of February this year. It added that with demand picking up, and an expected increase in demand to refill the pipeline, which will come sooner or later, sugar sales in the 2019-20 sugar season ending September may be around 5 lakh tonnes less than last year.

On the production front, the industry body said total output has reached 26.82 million tonnes in the first eight months of the 2019-20 season (October-September), but still lower than 32.75 million tonnes achieved in the year-ago period. However, it said total sugar production could reach 27 million tonnes, higher than its earlier estimate of 26.5 million tonnes for the current season because sugarcane has not got diverted for gur and khandsari making this time as operations in Uttar Pradesh remained shut due to the lockdown.

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