Hindsight from HMT

SUGAR production in 1969-70 is expected to be 40 lakh tonnes. The sugar mills have a carry-over stock of 12 lakh tonnes, The year's consumption is unlikely to exceed 30 lakh tonnes. Nor are exports yet a viable outlet for 'surplus' sugar. Why then has the year's sugar policy continued with partial control again this year releasing just 30 per cent of production for the free market? Why too, knowing that sugarcane production has in the past been hampered by its acreage being diverted to competitive foodgrains, has the minimum price for cane been pegged, lower than before, at a little over Rs 7.37 per quintal? We have the paradoxes, thus, of controls under plenty and a sugar industry that pleads for a higher minimum price for its raw material.