The recent announcement prohibiting 138 sugar factories from selling sugar in the free market in June has spooked the sugar industry.
These factories have not been allocated any free-sale sugar quota for June, implying that they cannot sell it in the open market.
The mills had no similar experience. Out of the active 138 of the 200-odd sugar mills which have not been granted any free-sale quota for June, 68 are from Maharashtra, 22 in Uttar Pradesh, 17 in Bihar, 9 in Gujarat, 5 in Haryana and 3 each in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Assam accounting.
These sugar mills had secured court orders which enabled them to sell any quantity of sugar in the open market, without being subjected to the government