Expect sugar demand to come back with the festive and wedding season: ISMA’s Abinash Verma

The Indian sugar prices have been slightly under pressure due to lower demand. The demand for the last 3 months has not been as per expectations due to COVID. However, the demand is expected to come back with the festival season and wedding season kick starting soon, said Abinash Verma, Director General, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).

He informed that for the current season, they have sold 2-3 lakh tonne less as compared to last year.

“October to December in the current season versus October to December in 2019 in the last season, the actual sales were almost similar to the actual sales of last year. But January has been a disappointment. It is almost about 2 lakh tonne less than what we sold last year. So, if we compare year-on-year, in the first 4 months of the current season, we would be trailing by almost about 2-3 lakh tonne as compared to what we sold last year,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Verma further noted that though the production for the current season is higher than last year, it is 3 million tonne less than what was produced 2 years back.

He added that the export market is still very attractive and exports have picked up. Indonesia has emerged as a big export opportunity for India as Thailand has cut down production, he noted.

“Most of our sugar generally goes into Middle East or Eastern side of Africa as well Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. But in the last one year, Indonesia has come up very well as another new market for Indian sugar thanks to Thailand dropping their production by almost about 8 million tonne as compared to the last 2 years,” he said.