November 03, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the sugar production in 2020-21 is projected to rise 13% after good rains boosted harvest. ISMA has started a campaign to encourage people to eat more sweets. ISMA even put up a series of articles, such as “Eat, Drink & Be Healthy: A little sugar not all that bad”, on its online website to encourage people to take sweets.

Bihar, a state in East India bordering Nepal, used to produce 40% of the total sugar in the country. Over the years, sugar mills in Bihar have now gone down to less than 4% due to India’s over-production and an export-quota set since 1937. Thus, prominent leader Rashtriya Janata Dal reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1 that he had promised in 2014 election to revive the sugar mills in the Bihar region. Apparently Prime Minister has not yet fulfilled his promise.

India ranks the world’s second-biggest sugar producer and reportedly has exported 5.65 million tons in 2019-20. The Indian government has been helping these sugar mills with subsidies. However, cheaper sugar prices from Australia, Brazil, and Guatemala has put many Indian sugar mills shut their operation for years. On the other hand, some state governments would attract prospective investors to facilitate sugar mills into independent production of ethanol. To promote the consumption of sugar, ISMA downgraded the warning from most health experts for sugar's consequence in diabetes and obesity, and instead campaigned recipes to persuade people to eat more sweets.

Photo:Webshot.